Almost 100 fewer million-dollar suburbs in Australia after house price falls

Suburbs in southwest Sydney and Melbourne’s inner ring have been impacted the most after falls of almost 10 per cent in Sydney since its peak in September 2017 and 4 per cent in Melbourne since April 2018, according to realestate.com.au.

CoreLogic has recently tipped values in the two cities to fall by 18-20 per cent from peak to trough this year.

The latest figures from CoreLogic show there were 649 suburbs across Australia in January this year that had a median house or unit value of at least $1 million.

“Although this figure had increased substantially from 123 suburbs a decade earlier, it has actually fallen from 741 suburbs in January 2018,” CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher said.

The drop of 92 suburbs also means there are now fewer million-dollar areas than in 2017, when 651 suburbs had a six-figure median.

Houses in Box Hill in Sydney’s north west saw the biggest drop in value, falling from $1.5 million to $896,000 in a year, although NSW still has the most suburbs with a median value of at least $1 million.

Other Sydney suburbs that dropped because of falling house prices included Revesby Heights, Padstow Heights, Panania and East Hills in the city’s southwest. Units in the prestige suburb Neutral Bay also dropped below $1 million after their value fell by 10 per cent to a median of $905,157.

Box Hill saw the biggest drops in house price values in Australia.Source:Supplied

In Victoria, house prices in the suburb of Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula fell 39.4 per cent, while those in the Melbourne suburb of North Melbourne fell by 18.7 per cent.

Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee told The Australian she did not think many of the areas had belonged in the price range in the first place.

“Everywhere overshot,” she said. “Prices like that were not sustainable.

“Now we are getting back to a more normal level. It all comes back to what buyers want to pay.”

There are some areas that are gaining million-dollar suburbs with Queensland and South Australia seeing their numbers grow.

Tasmania also got its first six-figure suburb when Hobart’s Battery Point tipped over to a $1.067 million median value.

Ms Conisbee has previously predicted prices would likely continue to record modest slides in the lead-up to the state and federal elections, with investors and first home buyers waiting to see who will win, and what changes if any were in store for negative gearing and capital gains tax.

She said she believed Sydney was more likely to experience price falls closer to 11 per cent and 6 per cent in Melbourne until June.

“There are quite a few steps to get to before we reach that worst case scenario so it’s difficult to try to predict what will happen, but the good news is the fact there’s very low unemployment in Sydney in particular at the moment, and what seems to be happening is not so much a distressed market, but a lot of uncertain people sitting on their hands,” Ms Conisbee said.

Historically, listings remained low prior to elections before recovering afterwards as certainty returned, she added.

“The market seems to be stuck at the moment but the federal election will be the decider on where we see prices going in the second part of the year,” Ms Conisbee said.

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