Many investors believe Sydney is the market guaranteed to bring the biggest capital growth for property, but a new report from CoreLogic indicates this isn’t always the case.
St Kilda in inner Melbourne saw the strongest capital gains for houses in the 12 months to December 2019 at 19.6 per cent, according to the property research firm. The median house value in the suburb is about $1.58 million.
And units in the mining town of South Hedland, about 1000km from Perth, bounced by 22.3 per cent to a median value of $130,000 in the same period. Take note that the lower median value suggests that prices were coming up from a low base.
Four Sydney suburbs made an appearance in the top 10 growth suburbs for houses, while none were mentioned in the list for apartments.
Houses in Carlingford in Sydney’s north-west saw the greatest capital growth in the harbour city in 2019, climbing by 15.4 per cent to a median value of $1.48 million.
Other Sydney areas making the list were:
· Loftus/Yarrawarrah;
· Sydenham/Tempe/St Peters; and
· Woronora Heights.
However, when looking at data in the past five years, houses in Hobart’s Risdon Vale recorded the strongest growth in values by 10.6 per cent to about $287,000, while units in Clifton Springs rose by 10 per cent to nearly $410,000.
While Hobart suburbs dominated the top house price growth suburb list, Melbourne areas took up the majority of the units list.
Sydney suburbs did not make it to either list.
Sub-regions where property values grew the most
Focusing on broader sub-regions in capital cities, Melbourne’s inner east took the top gong, surging by 12.1 per cent over 2019.
“Values remain 4.2 per cent below their August 2017 peak, however, with such a rapid rate of growth, housing values in this area will reach a new record high over the first two months of 2020,” according to CoreLogic.
It was followed by Sydney’s inner west and Sydney’s Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury area in the north-west, both growing by 8.8 per cent.
Overall, Sydney and Melbourne saw the highest annual capital gain among the capital cities, both increasing by 5.3 per cent in dwelling values in 2019.
But this growth was not consistent over the year.
“The positive year-end results mask what has been a year of two distinct halves -we saw capital city dwelling values fall by 3.8% over the first six months of 2019 and then rebound by 7.0% over the second half of the year,” CoreLogic Head of Research Tim Lawless said.
