More than 400 suburbs join Australia’s million-dollar club during boom

Once a sign of owning a prestige home, paying $1 million for a house has become the norm in hundreds more suburbs across Australia.

A huge 418 suburbs have joined the million-dollar club over the past year on the back of Australia’s housing boom.

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said the surge in suburbs with a million dollar median house price reflects the strong increase in prices.

“The past 12 months has seen property prices rise at their third highest rate on record, plus people have been comfortable borrowing more due to low mortgage rates and dedicating more income to housing because they essentially couldn’t spend in ways they usually would during the pandemic,” he said.

“As a result, many more suburbs have eclipsed the $1 million median price mark.”

More than 1100 suburbs around Australia now have a median house price in excess of $1 million, according to PropTrack data. Half of them are in New South Wales.

“There was a time when a $1 million home was a sign of owning a prestige property but those days are long gone,” Mr Kusher said.

“Paying $1 million for a house is much more normal nowadays anywhere than it was in the past and the $1 million price tag is no longer necessarily the indication of owning a premium property like it was in decades past.”

Lifestyle shifts during COVID have expanded the million-dollar club’s reach in regional areas, coastal hotspots and outer suburbs, with prices soaring as many people sought a sea or tree change, larger homes and more space.

PropTrack data shows national house prices rose by 21.7% over the 12 months to February.

Mr Kusher said housing prices will continue to rise this year but will do so at a slower pace.

“So I would expect more $1 million suburbs this year but the increase is likely to be significantly smaller than what we’ve witnessed over the past 12 months.”

State/territory	Number of new $1m suburbs
New South Wales	181
Queensland	94
Victoria	60
South Australia	40
Australian Capital Territory	23
Western Australia	14
Tasmania	5
Northern Territory	1

More million-dollar suburbs in more cities

A seven-figure median house price is now the norm in many city suburbs across Australia, with more than three-quarters of the 1100-plus million-dollar suburbs located in the capital cities.

“Both Sydney and Canberra have city-wide median house prices in excess of $1 million and Melbourne’s median is getting close to that figure too,” Mr Kusher said.

Sydney, Australia’s most expensive city for housing, still dominates the million-dollar club overall. Greater Sydney, including the Central Coast, now has almost 450 suburbs with a $1 million-plus median house price after another 83 suburbs hit that level over the past year.

While the eastern suburbs, northern beaches and north shore are already home to some of Sydney and Australia’s most expensive houses, the number of $1 million suburbs continues to climb in other parts of the city. 

The newcomers include: Bankstown ($1.17 million median house price), Lakemba ($1.087m) and Punchbowl ($1.06m) in the inner south west area; Glenbrook ($1.265m) and Leura ($1.19m) in the Blue Mountains; Auburn ($1.055m) and Merrylands ($1.058m) in the Parramatta region; and Cabramatta ($1.075m) and Wetherill Park ($1.026m) in the south west.

The median house price more than doubled over the past year in some spots, including in Wallacia in the outer west where it went from $782,500 a year ago to $1.815 million now, and in Maraylya it jumped from $880,000 to $2.095 million.

Rance Property – Kenthurst director/licensee Scott Rance said Maraylya represented the next best bet for buyers looking for acreage and space but priced out of other parts of the Hills and Hawkesbury like Kenthurst, Annangrove, Dural, Glenorie, Middle Dural and Arcadia.

“You’re looking at $3 million to get into those suburbs and that can be a pretty average block or average house, whereas you go out to Maraylya and the property I recently sold for $2.45 million was five arable acres,” he said.

An investor bought the Marayla property to land bank it, or “sit on it and wait” for the urban sprawl to spread further west and north west, he said.

Mr Rance said Maraylya only had about 500 or 600 properties and with limited transactions, it was getting harder to get in at a cheaper price.

“It used to be that $1 million would buy you a pretty good property in Maraylya whereas now you can’t get an acreage property in Maraylya for $1 million, no way.”

New million-dollar suburbs on the Central Coast include Norah Head ($1.52m), Erina ($1.28m), Umina Beach ($1.1m) and Ettalong Beach ($1.21m).

Most of Victoria’s million-dollar suburbs are in greater Melbourne, which includes the Mornington Peninsula which has been in hot demand during the pandemic.

Melbourne now has more than 200 suburbs with a $1 million-plus median house price after 55 newcomers hit that mark in the last 12 months.

Bayside suburbs Chelsea ($1.02m) and Bonbeach ($1.152m) are newcomers, along with Greensborough ($1.02m), Diamond Creek ($1.047m) and Wattle Glen ($1.037m) in the north east and Gisborne ($1.08m) and Macedon ($1.11m) in the Macedon Ranges.

Another two dozen suburbs in the outer east and south east hit the million-dollar mark, such as Nunawading ($1.26m), Forest Hill ($1.2m), Ringwood ($1.035m), Rowville ($1.038m), Mount Dandenong ($1.09m), Dingley Village ($1.045m) and Mulgrave ($1m).

More than 20 suburbs on the Mornington Peninsula now have a median house price of $1 million-plus with the five newcomers being Rye ($1.16m), Frankston South ($1.159m), Safety Beach ($1.18m), Mornington ($1.112m) and Dromana ($1.08m).

Adelaide’s number more than doubled. Adelaide’s 40 newcomers included Trinity Gardens ($1.546m), Beaumont ($1.5m), Wayville ($1.5m), Unley ($1.37m), North Adelaide ($1.101m), North Brighton ($1m) and Henley Beach ($1.25m).

The picturesque villages of Stirling ($1.089m) and Aldgate ($1.05m) in the Adelaide Hills also hit a million-dollar median house price.

Canberra’s million-dollar ranks also more than doubled. Its 23 newcomers include Farrer ($1.4m), Lyneham ($1.275m), Lyons ($1.27m), Downer ($1.26m), Mawson ($1.207m), Dickson ($1.117m), Forde ($1.1m) and Chifley ($1.081m).

Another 13 suburbs in Perth hit a $1 million median house price, including East Perth ($1.087m), Marmion ($1.25m), North Beach ($1.05m), Shelley ($1.056m), Kensington ($1.03m) and Fremantle ($1m).

At this time last year Battery Point and Sandy Bay were Hobart’s only million-dollar suburbs. Now they’ve been joined by Acton Park ($1.1m), Mount Stuart ($1.065m), Dynnyrne ($1.02m), West Hobart ($1.006m) and Tranmere ($1m).

Darwin also has its first million-dollar suburb in Bayview, where the median house price is now $1.05 million.

Queensland prices playing catch up

The sunshine state’s million-dollar suburbs have more than doubled, with Real Estate Institute of Queensland CEO Antonia Mercorella saying prices there are playing catch up after years of modest growth.

“What we’re probably witnessing is Queensland’s playing a little bit of catch up and Brisbane as our capital city is playing catch up too,” Ms Mercorella said.

“There’s no doubt it’s been a steady performer but certainly the growth pre-COVID was a lot more modest compared to Sydney and Melbourne.

“What we’re seeing now is really growth of a kind that we’ve not witnessed before and what’s interesting is it’s not just limited to the capital city, we’re seeing it really across all corners of our state.”

Queensland’s million-dollar suburbs are shared across Brisbane and regional areas, mainly the commutable lifestyle hubs of the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.

The state gained 94 new $1 million suburbs over the past year, with Mr Kusher pointing to the strong demand for properties in South East Queensland.

“The Gold and Sunshine Coasts offer the lifestyle that so many people are looking for within close proximity to a capital city and with proximity to other capital cities via their airports,” he said.

Brisbane’s 43 newcomers included the riverside suburb of Tennyson, where the median house price almost doubled to $1.425 million.

Other Brisbane newcomers included Manly ($1.2m) in Brisbane’s east, Gordon Park ($1.251m) and Shorncliffe ($.125m) in the north, Robertson ($1.351m) and Carindale ($1.28m) in the south and Kenmore Hills ($1.31m) in the west.

The Gold Coast’s 16 new million-dollar suburbs included Miami ($1.48m), Burleigh Waters ($1.375m) and Burleigh Heads ($1.3m).

The Sunshine Coast has 27 newcomers, including Noosa North Shore ($1.592m), Diddillibah ($1.462m), Peregian Beach ($1.275m) and Coolum Beach ($1.2m). 

Ms Mercorella said COVID accelerated the demand for property in Queensland, with very high levels of interstate migration and interstate demand contributing to the price growth.

As well as interstate buyers snapping up properties for top dollar in the capital city, Ms Mercorella said many of those Brisbane vendors were taking advantage of the strong sale conditions and downsizing to the coast.

“We’re also seeing some people moving here from interstate who are still retaining their positions in cities like Sydney and Melbourne but they’re able to come and live here, where of course the affordability is much greater, albeit that our prices are going up.”

Surge in regional and coastal $1m suburbs

Mr Kusher said the rapid shift in demand into regional markets has pushed prices higher and driven a surge in the number of new $1 million suburbs outside of the capital city markets.

More than half of NSW’s 181 new million-dollar suburbs are in regional areas, with many in coastal regions.

“We still saw many new $1 million suburbs in Sydney but the increase in regional markets was greater, also reflective of the stronger price growth outside Sydney,” Mr Kusher said.

The state’s 98 regional newcomers include: Pokolbin ($1.285m), the wine capital of the Hunter Valley; the Snowy Mountains town of Jindabyne ($1.35m); the coastal village of Sapphire Beach ($1.155m) in Coffs Harbour; and the surfing village of Crescent Head ($1.2m) on the mid north coast.

South coast entrants included Mollymook ($1.197m) and Mollymook Beach ($1.167m), where there has been strong price growth and some big sales. The new million-dollar suburbs in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region included Brightwaters ($1.45m) and Caves Beach ($1.4m).

With a median house price of $2.2 million, the Illawarra suburb of Kiama Heights had the highest median among Australia’s 418 new million-dollar suburbs. Its median sat at $990,000 a year ago.

Stone Real Estate – Illawarra sales executive Greg Crumpton said properties in the Kiama area have been highly sought-after by both locals and Sydney buyers making a sea change or buying second homes during the pandemic.

Mr Crumpton said while prices had jumped markedly in the area, record high-end sales had boosted the median in Kiama Heights and elsewhere.

With wife and fellow agent Helena Crumpton, he sold a 1480sqm waterfront reserve property on two titles in Kiama Heights for $5 million in October.

They also sold a magnificent five-bedroom entertainer’s dream in Kiama – already a million-dollar suburb – to a local buyer for a record $6.32 million – and it wasn’t even a waterfront property.

Mr Crumpton said it was difficult to find a house for under $1 million in the Kiama area, where there was a lack of new subdivision and development compared to elsewhere.

“You’re flat out getting a basic three-bedroom home for under $1 million now. Under a million you’re probably looking at a duplex, villa, townhouse or an apartment, but certainly not in prime position.”

Kiama Downs ($1.3m) and Wollongong ($1.007m) were also among the two dozen newcomers in the Illawarra.

Compared to NSW and Queensland, Victoria has relatively few suburbs outside greater Melbourne with a $1 million median house price.

Most are in popular seaside towns along the Great Ocean Road near Geelong, with Torquay ($1.25m) and Point Lonsdale ($1.34m) the latest to reach a million-dollar median.

McCartney Real Estate – Torquay director/owner Tim Carson said several factors have pushed up prices, with buyers looking for a lifestyle change as well as accessibility to Melbourne and good schools in Geelong have been looking at Torquay.

Farmers who have had good years with cattle prices or crops were also making their dream of buying a holiday home in Torquay a reality, he said.

Mr Carson said the Torquay market has been catching up to other coastal hotspots nearby and on the Mornington Peninsula.

“We have a lot of people that lived in Lorne and Anglesea that have come this way purely because of the accessibility.

“I think we were quite cheap when you compare us even to the Mornington Peninsula.”

Mr Carson said the entry point for a house in Torquay now was pretty close to its $1.25 million median price. “You’re struggling to get a house under $1.2 million.”

Western Australia now has one million-dollar suburb outside Perth: the small seaside town of Quindalup ($1.235m) in the state’s south west.

The rise of $1m suburbs and affordability

The surge in housing prices and the number of million-dollar suburbs comes at a time when the spotlight is on housing affordability.

Ms Mercorella said affordability is becoming an issue in places like Brisbane and more broadly in Queensland after the fast pace of growth over the last two years, despite those markets being more affordable than Sydney or Melbourne.

Ms Mercorella said there are more affordable – and more expensive – options in suburbs with a million-dollar median.

“It’s easy to become disillusioned and disappointed when you’re seeing these prices going up, but I think people need to keep looking and researching before they make an assumption that it’s out of reach for them.”

Mr Kusher said affordability is a challenge for anyone looking to enter the market for the first time or people who have been out of home ownership and are looking to become owners once more.

“Low borrowing costs have resulted in property prices rising rapidly while household income growth has been much lower,” he said.

“Further, while record-low borrowing costs make servicing a mortgage easier, it also means people saving for a mortgage get less interest on their bank deposits, again exacerbating challenges in accessing the market.”

Mr Kusher said median price data is a useful guide that looks at the middle value of sales over a period, but noted there are as many properties sold for a price below that figure as there are above it. “So you shouldn’t just immediately discount a suburb or location because the median price seems high.”

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