While many areas within Australia are on a ‘steady as she goes’ price trajectory, house prices have spiralled on Sydney’s Northern Beaches taking the median up to $1 million.
According to new research recently released by PRDnationwide, house prices in the Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Local Government Areas are up by 15.6 per cent,
PRDnationwide researcher Oded Reuveni Etzioni said: “The Northern Beaches have been setting the benchmark across Australia in the past decade, with demand often outstripping supply and exceptional capital growth buoyed by robust sales volumes.”
Mr Reuveni Etzioni said the price would soar even higher thanks to a combination of strong population growth and limited amount of new supply.
“The record median was based on a total of 1339 house sales – an 8 per cent jump compared to June 2009,” he said. Almost one in three of properties sold for between $700,000 and $899,000.
“In the past two years a shift towards the higher price brackets can be noticed,” Mr Reuveni Etzioni said.
Serge Scekic, the owner of Aussie Dee Why/Balgowlah – which is one of the company’s busiest and most successful stores across Australia – has also noticed an uptick in values in their region.
Mr Scekic said: “We have noticed an increase in values from the lower end of the market with units pushing the value of houses up towards the $1 million bracket.”
“Entry level two bedroom units, which may have sold for under $400,000, are now more like $450,000 and higher.”
“This flows through the houses as well, with most entry level houses in the area now going for more than $700,000.”
This is backed up by the PRDNationwide report, which revealed the portion of houses selling in the bottom price bracket of below $700,000 decreased 40 per cent in the six months to June 2010, and 63 per cent from the June 2009 half year.
“At the same time, the top price bracket of $1.9 Million-plus experienced a 38 per cent increase in size from only eight per cent of the market in the June 2009 half year to 11 per cent of sales for the same period in 2010.”
The research also found the number of units in Sydney’s Northern Beaches has increased in recent years to become the dwelling type of choice in many of the region’s suburbs.
In the Manly Local Government Area (LGA), units and townhouses represent 56 per cent of all dwellings, while in the Warringah and Pittwater LGAs strata titled dwellings account for 37 per cent and 20 per cent of the housing stock respectively.
The unit market also experienced a 13.3 per cent increase in median unit price during the June 2010 half year to reach $549,500. The rental market is tight, with vacancy slipping to 1.2 per cent and asking prices climbing.
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