Think back to 1993, when we were queuing to see Jurassic Park at the movies. It doesn’t seem so long ago, yet in those days home buyers could pick up a house in Suffolk Park in the Byron area of northern NSW for just $74,250. Today, the suburb’s median house price is $1.185 million. It’s a jaw-dropping 25-year gain of 1,496%, and that’s put Suffolk Park at the top the nation’s league table of property price growth since 1993.
Just as surprising, second place was taken out by the (then) hamlet of Leschenault in the south west corner of Western Australia. Here you could have purchased a house for just $36,000 in 1993. Fast forward to 2018 and the median house value is $527,500.
These are just some of the amazing findings in a groundbreaking new report by Aussie Home Loans and CoreLogic, which identifies the nation’s top performing suburbs for property price growth since 1993.
Could the national median house value rise to $2.9 million?
Nationally, house values have, on average, gained an extra $18,400 annually over the last quarter century. That’s taken the median house value across Australia to $571,400 in 2018, with the median apartment value sitting at $515,600.
But property markets don’t stand still for long, and according to CoreLogic the median house value in Australia could rise to $2.9 million and apartments could reach $2.15 million at the same rate of growth over the next 25 years!
Melbourne blitzes the top 100
Melbournians can take a bow. The Victorian capital has claimed 41 of the top 100 suburbs for property price growth since 1993. Sydney comes in at second place with 25 of the top 100 suburbs, followed by Perth, with 12 placings.
As a guide to the gains, in Flinders, on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, house prices have risen 1,100% over the past quarter century, taking the median value from $126,000 in 1993 to $1.5 million today. In Sydney, the top spot goes to Currans Hill near Camden, where the median house value in 1993 was just $53,000 – a far cry from today’s median price of $655,000.
Regional areas dominate the top 10
But it’s regional suburbs that have recorded some of the most outstanding price gains over the past 25 years, taking out nine of the top 10 spots nationally.
Along with Suffolk Park, house prices in suburbs of Cessnock and Singleton, both in the NSW Hunter Valley, have recorded gains of over 1,000%. Shoalhaven and Shellharbour suburbs in the Illawarra to Sydney’s south have also notched up house price growth exceeding 1,000% since 1993. And the south west corner of Western Australia took out a remarkable three of the top 10 places nationally.
A look back at the past…
It’s not only the top performing suburbs that are so interesting about the Aussie/CoreLogic 25 Years of Housing Trends report. It’s just as intriguing to look back and see some of the prices homes sold for back in 1993.
To the south west of Sydney, in St Helens Park, a suburb of Campbelltown for instance, the median house value was just $52,000 25 years ago. Today the median is $590,000.
In Perth, you could pick up a house in Leda, in the Kwinana area, for just $24,125. Today’s median value is $312,000 putting Leda at the top of Perth’s suburbs for 25-year price growth.
It goes to show that what you pay for your home today could pale in comparison to its possible future value.
To discover Australia’s top performing suburbs for price growth over the last 25 years download the full Aussie/CoreLogic 25 years of housing trends report or contact your Aussie Broker for a free copy.
