Australia’s property market has performed exceptionally well over the past 12 months, with the median price across the country lifting 21.58% in the year to 30 October 2021, according to CoreLogic.
In Sydney, prices have risen even more rapidly, with the median dwelling price rising 25.23% to now stand at $1,071,709.
It probably comes as no surprise to many readers that here in Sydney’s East, we’ve seen even stronger growth. According to Domain, the median Eastern Suburbs house price rose 27.4% in the year to 30 September.
To put that into perspective, if your eastern suburbs home was worth $3 million on 30 September 2020, you could now reasonably expect it to be worth $3.822 million. That equates to an eye-watering $2,252 a day.
Markets don’t act in unison
But that figure only tells part of the story. As you probably already know, the property market rarely acts in unison. There are markets within markets – with different drivers often affecting buyers in, say, the prestige market vs the first home buyer market, or even the apartment market vs the housing market.
One of the features of the current boom is that houses have generally outperformed apartments. As I mentioned in a September article, apartment values have been climbing at roughly half the pace of house values.
Interestingly, that’s not the case in our part of the world. Domain reports that in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, apartment prices have been rising faster than anywhere in the city other than the Northern Beaches.
Here, the median apartment price lifted 20% in the year to 30 September 2021. This compares to a growth of 10.5% on the North Shore and 9.7% compared with the City and Inner South.
Domain reports that over the same period, the median house price in the eastern suburbs rose 27.4%, which again fell short of the Northern Beaches (46.1%) but was again ahead of the North Shore (25.2%) and the City and Inner South (23.6%).
Lifestyle the key
As I’ve said before, while record low-interest rates are having an impact on price growth, another real driver of today’s market is a lifestyle. Since COVID-19 struck, people have been reassessing the way they live and many have decided a more relaxed way of life (especially one near the water) is the way forward. This helps explain the Northern Beaches’ recent record growth. But it also explains why some of the beachside suburbs in the Eastern Suburbs have been performing so strongly too.
For instance, the median Bronte house price rose an incredible 54.5% between October 2020 and today, according to realestate.com.au data. Next door in Tamarama, they lifted 47.4% to $8,625,000.
A pause in proceedings?
But another interesting statistic to come out of both Domain and CoreLogic’s data is that growth has generally been slowing over the past few months. In fact, Domain reported that the Eastern Suburbs’ median house and apartment prices actually fell slightly over the past quarter.
For this reason, we think we’ll still see price growth over 2022 but that it will be more subdued than this year.
What we’re noticing on the ground post-lockdown is that more properties are coming to market, and this increased supply is helping keep price growth a little more steady. This is good news for Eastern Suburbs buyers but, in many ways, it’s good news for sellers too.
Most sellers need to make a move and one of the factors holding sellers back has been a lack of quality stock to move into – this has been particularly acute for downsizers, who have been finding it difficult to secure a property that meets their criteria. Increased supply means greater choice for these buyers and we expect to see a lot more activity in the property market over the coming year.
Top-performing Eastern Suburbs over 2021
As I mentioned, many of the best performing suburbs in our area were along the Eastern Beaches. But there were some strong contenders in other parts of the East too, especially in prestige suburbs. Here are some notable performers, according to realestate.com.au data.
| Suburb | Property type | Median | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronte | Houses | $5,400,000 | 54.5% |
| Tamarama | Houses | $8,625,000 | 47.5% |
| Double Bay | Houses | $5,992,500 | 37.0% |
| Potts Point | Apartments | $890,000 | 17.1% |
| Woolloomooloo | Apartments | $1,485,000 | 16.9% |
Want more?
If you’re looking to buy or sell in Sydney’s east contact my team today.
