Almost one-quarter of all homes sold in the past 12 months have been worth more than $1 million dollars.
According to CoreLogic, a record 596,733 sales were recorded across the country, up 19.8 per cent, with 23.8 per cent of homes worth more than $1 million.
CoreLogic Research Analyst Kaytlin Ezzy said Australia’s bullish economic and property performance during the latter part of 2021 led to a record result for both the volume of transactions and the proportion of million-dollar sales.
“High consumer sentiment, tight advertised supply, and low interest rates fuelled strong home value growth throughout 2021, resulting in a new record high annual growth rate of 22.4 per cent over the 12 months to January,” Ms Ezzy said.
“Despite values having risen across all capital cities and rest of state areas annually, we have seen a divergence in growth conditions across markets over the year-to-date.”
In the year to May, an additional 487 markets joined the million-dollar club, with 30.4 per cent of house and unit markets analysed recording a median value of $1 million or more.
After a record-setting period, Ms Ezzy said prices and the number of million-dollar sales were now starting to cool down.
“Since January, dwelling values across Sydney and Melbourne have started to decline, while values have continued to rise across South Australia and Queensland,” she said.
“More recently, Canberra, which had previously recorded many months of consecutive growth, recorded its first falls in dwelling values in some years in May.”
Sydney suburbs made up 26.3 per cent of the new million-dollar markets, which Ms Ezzy said was unsurprising given the city’s median dwelling value has sat above $1 million since May 2021.
“While the largest concentration of new million-dollar markets in the city’s South West, Outer South West and Central Coast, Sydney’s million-dollar markets are fairly widespread, with more than half of all Sydney sales over the 12 months to May transacting at or above $1 million,” she said.
A number of high-end trophy homes have also sold for record prices over the past 12 months, including the $60 million transaction of a north-facing six-bedroom, six-bathroom waterfront home on Lindsay Avenue, Darling Point, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
While In Melbourne a five-bedroom property in Orrong Road, Toorak, sold for $38.5 million in February and the most expensive regional sale in 2022 has been a six-bedroom beachfront home on the Gold Coast’s millionaire’s row, Hedges Avenue at Mermaid Beach, which sold for $21.5 million in May.
Regional Australia
Regional housing markets have shown a stronger growth trend through the pandemic to date compared to capital cities, with values up 41.4 per cent across regional Australia since March 2020 compared with a 21.8 per cent rise across the combined capital city markets.
Byron Bay houses in the Richmond-Tweed region recorded the highest median value in regional NSW at $2,741,847, up approximately $400,000 from this time last year.
Regional NSW has 150 house and four unit markets with a median value at or above $1 million, more than double the number recorded this time last year.
The Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven, Illawarra and Newcastle and Lake Macquarie regions had the highest concentration of million-dollar newcomers.
In regional Victoria, 22 house markets made the million-dollar list, of which most were in Geelong, where Aireys Inlet houses had the highest median at $2,189,874.
Queensland is the only state to have a similar number of million-dollar markets in its capital city of Brisbane (122) compared to the rest of the state (107), which Ms Ezzy said is largely due to the popularity of the Gold and Sunshine coasts.
Million-dollar outlook
As interest rates now slowly start to rise, Ms Ezzy said she expected a number of homes to fall back under the $1 million dollar level.
“As the market moves into the downward phase of the cycle it’s likely a number of the recent entrants to the million-dollar list will see their median values decline below the $1 million mark,” she said.
“Despite this, Australian household wealth hit record high levels at the end of the March quarter, driven by continued strength in the housing market largely driven by gains across the real estate sector.”
Sydney
In the year to May, 51.9 per cent of transactions in Sydney sold for $1 million or more.
In Sydney, 448 house and 104 unit markets have a current median value of $1 million dollars or higher, an increase of 26.6 per cent from the previous year.
The new million-dollar markets are largely concentrated in the city’s South West (30) and Outer South West (15) as well as the Central Coast region (20).
Melbourne
The majority of million-dollar suburbs were located in Melbourne’s Inner (39), Inner South (42), Inner East (30) and Outer East (30). Over the year to May, 34.6 per cent of sales had a price of $1 million or more, up from 26.5 per cent the year prior.
Brisbane
Queensland’s relative affordability and strong interstate migration underpinned a surge in values with the number of million-dollar markets more than doubling across Brisbane (up 139.2 per cent) and regional QLD (up 127.7 per cent) compared to this time last year.
Adelaide
As of May, Adelaide had 79 markets with a median house value of $1 million or higher; more than double the number of markets recorded this time last year. Over the year to May, 13 per cent of sales recorded a sale price at or above $1 million.
Perth
Across Perth, 56 house markets made the million-dollar list in May, up from 43 the year prior. Nine of Perth’s top 10 most expensive house markets were located in the city’s Inner region, where Dalkeith recorded the highest median value at $2,965,588.
Hobart
Over the 12 months to March, 19.3 per cent of sales across Hobart had a sales price at or above $1 million, up from 8.3 per cent the year prior.
As of May, 10 house markets were in the millionaires’ club, eight more than this time last year. Houses in Sandy Bay recorded the highest median value in May, at $1,402,803, followed by Acton Park at $1,316,329.
ACT
Across the ACT, 52 house markets made the million-dollar list in May, more than double the 28 from the year prior. While no unit markets made the list, 62.7 per cent of ACT’s house markets did.
The portion of million-dollar sales rose over the year to May, from 16.0 per cent in 2021 to 28.9 per cent in 2022.
