The green shoots of a property market recovery are sprouting, according to DiJONES’s latest annual Market Report released this week, which shows prominent Sydney areas leading the way and a trend of Sydneysiders relocating to the Southern Highlands.
The report, which draws data from 176 suburbs surrounding its eight offices in Sydney and the Southern Highlands, shows that unit values in some parts of inner-city Sydney rose more than 50 per cent in the 12 months to July 2019.
Topping the list was the inner-West suburb of Lilyfield, where the median unit sales price rose an incredible 72 per cent to $1,1222,500 based on 41 sales.
This was followed by the prestige suburbs of Hunters Hill and Balmain East where unit prices rose 64.9 per cent and 57.8 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, the biggest jump in house prices was in the beachside suburb of Queenscliff, where an average family home will now set you back $3.96 million.
DiJONES CEO Rob Ward said the results show the strength of Sydney’s blue-ribbon areas in the face of a widespread slowdown. He anticipates the same confidence that underpins these property markets will spread more widely over the next 12 months.
“We’re seeing promising signs of market recovery from all of our offices,” Mr Ward said.
“Prices stabilised over the final quarter of the financial year then registered a small increase in June 2019 – the first since July 2017. We’re also seeing auction clearance rates rising.”
Overall, Mr Ward said the report reveals more buyers returning to the market and more vendors seeking appraisals.
“We expect this to translate into a greater number of people also listing their homes for sale,” he said.
One interesting trend the suburb-by-suburb data shows is that the Southern Highlands property market is increasingly made up of buyers leaving Sydney.
Half of property buyers in Bowral and Bundanoon come from Sydney’s Inner-West, Eastern Suburbs, Upper and Lower North Shore, Northern Suburbs and Hills District. In the premium Southern Highlands suburb of Burradoo, the figure is closer to 60 per cent.
Just 20 per cent of buyers in Bowral and Bundanoon and 10 per cent of buyers in Burradoo are local Southern Highlands buyers.
This pattern is repeated in other parts of the Southern Highlands, including in Exeter, Burrawang and Robertson.
These trends reinforce DiJONES’s strategy of having a network of offices across Sydney and the Southern Highlands, allowing data to be shared between regions so that buyers and homes can be more easily matched.
Statistics at a glance
The report carries Domain data for 176 Sydney and Southern Highlands suburbs from 1 July 2018 – 30 June 2019. Key findings include:
Best suburb growth:
● Greatest 12-month change in median sales price for units: Lilyfield 72 per cent
● Greatest 12-month change in median sales price for houses: Queenscliff 53.9 per cent
● Shortest days on market: Waverton 23 days
● Highest median sales price: Point Piper houses $12,000,000
● Lowest median sales price: Moss Vale units $507,500
● Highest number of sales in the past 12 months: Dee Why at 566
● Highest median rental yield (12 months): Units in Ultimo and Normanhurst, 4.9 per cent
Median asking rents:
● Highest: Bellevue Hill houses $2,200 per week
● Lowest: North Epping units $380 per week
