Every NSW suburb’s average home value revealed: how much your property is worth

NSW’s real estate downturn has wiped more than $200k from the value of homes in some areas, while others saw increases. See how much your home is now worth based on exclusive valuation data

Sydney home values have shrunk in nearly three quarters of city suburbs over the past three months in what’s shaping up to be one of the sharpest property market turnarounds in history.

The falls evaporated the gains of last year’s boom in some cases, with the average value of homes in parts of the northern beaches and Central Coast now more than $200,000 lower than a year ago.

There were also considerable falls in home values across pockets of the inner west and Sutherland Shire, PropTrack valuations data showed.

The falls have come as soaring interest rates and living costs, coupled with declining buyer confidence, pulled Sydney’s housing market into a sharper than expected downturn earlier this year.

The market had been firing only months before, with many indicators pointing to the strongest buyer demand and price hikes since the late 1980s.

Homes in northern beach areas had some of the biggest value drops.

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said the market turnaround has come faster and more widespread than expected, labelling it a “blow” for households.

“People will feel less wealthy,” he said. “The value of their home is going down and they’re paying more in repayments because interest rates are rising.”

PropTrack’s Automated Valuation Model, which considers all houses and units in a suburb to reach a median value, showed values declined in 73 per cent of the Sydney suburbs surveyed.

The analysis excluded suburbs where there were fewer than 500 properties.

The model indicated falls in most areas ranged from less than a per cent to 5 per cent. They also varied by property category, with freestanding houses tending to lose value in more areas than units, but units, when they did fall, had bigger drops.

The biggest home value falls – 15 per cent or more – were in outer “lifestyle” suburbs near beaches or national parks.

They included Bateau Bay, Ettalong Beach, The Entrance and Gosford, on the Central Coast, Palm Beach on the northern beaches, and Dural in the northwest.

Units in northern beaches suburb Bayview were now worth an average of about $350,000 less than last year, but coming off a very high base: median values were near $1.8 million earlier this year.

Unit values in nearby Narraweena and Mona Vale were about $100,000-$130,000 lower than a year ago, the modelling showed.

Many of these areas had an explosion of buyer demand during last year’s Covid lockdowns as hunkered down families branched away from inner- and middle-ring suburbs in search of space.

Remote working arrangements also meant families who had previously valued accessibility to their workplaces felt more comfortable being further away.

Mr Kusher said this trend was fading. “The impetus to move to those markets is nowhere near as strong as it was in the early stages of the pandemic,” he said.

“Prices in those markets increased dramatically (last year) and now with rates going up and a general slowdown, it’s not the kind of housing stock people are looking for.”

Billy and David Oldmeadow, with kids Alenka, Quinn and Augie, are selling their house in Erskineville, one of the suburbs where values are still rising. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Suburbs within a 5km radius of the CBD were among the few areas where property values continued to grow over the three month period.

Value rises were recorded in The Rocks, Balmain East, Ultimo, Woolloomooloo and a belt of inner suburbs to the south, including Redfern, Zetland, Waterloo and Erskineville.

Mr Kusher said that a rising inner Sydney market and declining outer suburban market was a reversal of last year.

Outer areas and regional NSW were the biggest boom markets in 2021 and sellers in inner Sydney suburbs had struggled to attract buyers.

“The inner city holding up talks to the fact that it’s opening back up,” Mr Kusher said. “Values had been going nowhere for years. Now, the places that people wanted to live in before the pandemic are getting growth again.”

Billy Oldmeadow has been shopping for a new home in Erskineville and said she wasn’t surprised home values were holding steady considering the number of people she was seeing at open homes.

“There are still plenty of people around. It doesn’t feel like there’s been huge change,” she said.

Her family are selling their house at 22 Burran St, which is open for inspection 10:45am Saturday, and Ms Oldmeadow said the prospect of a downturn wasn’t an issue for them because they were buying and selling in the same market.

Ray White Surry Hills Glebe Alexandria agent Moira Verheijen said inner suburbs were still attracting a lot of interest.

“Had we bought before selling we would have been concerned,” she said, adding that her suburb’s enduring popularity was encouraging for them.

Agent Moira Verheijen of Ray White Surry Hills Alexandria said it was apparent home buyers wanted to be nearer the CBD again.

“You can expect about 20 groups of buyers through an open for inspection in this area if it’s a good home,” she said. “It’s that vicinity to the CBD, and to the airport, that’s helping the area hold its value.”