Property millionaires cash out to the bush

A RECORD number of Sydneysiders have become newly minted millionaires courtesy of the city’s property boom.

A RECORD number of Sydneysiders have become newly minted millionaires courtesy of the city’s property boom.

Last year alone, 606,933 homes with a price tag over a million dollars were sold — 196,220 up on the previous year, according to new Core Logic RP data.

Once a mythical yardstick for fabulous wealth, the ­million-dollar mark has ­instead become Sydney’s median house price, and families from traditional working class areas have watched their homes ride the surge in prices.

One such suburb was the Sutherland Shire’s Kirrawee, which experienced an astronomical 1328 per cent rise in the number of million dollar-plus homes sold during the course of the year.

In 2014, 93 homes fell in that category while last year the figure grew to 1328.

According to NSW Real ­Estate Institute president John Cunningham, Sydney’s paper millionaires aren’t just rich in theory; many have taken the cash and headed out of town.

“It’s a good time to go bush, or further out,” he said.

“I know someone who sold and bought a beautiful place at Port Macquarie and then was also able to purchase an apartment in Sydney.

“A lot of people might be millionaires on paper, but it is real money.”

“A lot of people might be millionaires on paper, but it is real money”

Other suburbs to join the millionaires’ club included Dundas Valley (going from 114 sales of $1 million-plus homes in 2014 to 1277 last year), Rydalmere, (77 to 943), Roselands (189 to 1228), Gymea (189 to 1081), Padstow (148 to 1272) and Glenwood (183 to 1045).

Sandwiched between Lakemba and Campsie, Belmore was another unlikely entrant to the club, rising from 254 sales in 2014 to 2263 last year.

Ray White’s chief auctioneer Scott Smith said the Sydney CBD was the first postcode to crack a million dollars back in 1989 and the harbour city now has 302 postcodes with house values passing the $1 million mark, compared with 151 five years ago.

“Sydney now has more than two thirds of the nation’s 437 millionaire suburbs,” he said.