Perth's most tightly-held suburbs
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A SECRET millionaire enclave in Perth's northern suburbs is one of the city's most loved areas residents don't want to leave.
Residents of Gnangara, wedged between Wangara and the Gnangara-Moore River State Forrest, hold onto their properties for an average of 14.3 years, the latest RP Data figures show.
That’s almost six years longer than the average time Perth residents will spend in a property.
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The semi-rural suburb, with a population of just more than 1000 people, took out the top spot for Perth’s most tightly held suburb jointly with Herne Hill.
Its median house price was $1m as of June 2013, the data shows.
The cheapest properties sell for about $850,000, while the most expensive go for between $3.5m and $4m, local property agents said.
* CLICK ON A SUBURB BELOW TO SEE STATS ON THE TOP 25
Davey Real Estate director Sam Hedges described the suburb as leafy with “large, architecturally-designed type homes” on properties between two and a half and ten acres in size.
But aside from the locals not many people know about Gnangara - the suburb does not even feature in the Real Estate Institute of WA’s interactive list of Perth suburbs because it is considered a “lifestyle living” area with properties more than one hectare.
Resident Tracy Booth, who has lived in Gnangara with her husband and five children since 2003, said friends and visitors were often surprised by the area when they visited.
“When we moved here I had a friend who said ‘Why on earth would you move from Hillarys to Gnangara?” Ms Booth said.
“When she came and visited … she said ‘what a fabulous spot’.”
The Booth family moved from Manchester, England 16 years ago and rented in Scarborough and lived in Hillarys for two years before they decided they needed more space to raise their young children.
The home they picked in Gnangara was a four-bedroom, two-bathroom Colonial style house on almost three acres.
“It gave the kids freedom to be children,” Ms Booth said.
“They could get dirty and play but you always knew they were safe on the property.”
The space has also allowed the family to add three bedrooms, a guest house and an indoor pool, among other renovations.
Ms Booth said the family’s 10 years in Gnangara was the longest they had lived anywhere.
“We’ve always had itchy feet; we used to buy houses then move on within about two years in England,” she said.
The Booth family’s neighbours are also long-time residents; the newest ones moved in five years ago.
“We don’t live in each other’s pockets but everyone is really friendly,” she said.
“We all get together about three times a year to catch up.”
Mr Hedges said Gnangara’s residents were mostly self-employed with businesses which operated heavy machinery.
“They like to house their gear on their property; they don’t have to pay to house it and they can work on it on the weekends, if they like,” Mr Hedges said.
“They had to have built something quite impressive or be quite well to do because properties up there weren’t cheap.”
Oceanside Realty agent Deb Treloar, who has sold homes in the area for eight years, said people tended to stay in Gnangara for between 15 and 18 years.
“They move in when the kids are little and tend to move away when their kids move out of home,” Ms Treloar said.
“The properties with their big houses and tennis courts and the like are too big for two people."
The suburbs residents stayed the longest after Gnangara and Herne Hill were Murdoch (13.4 years), Hovea (13.2 years), Coogee (12.4 years) and Bibra Lake (12.3 years).
Top 10 longest held suburbs:
GNANGARA
HERNE HILL
MURDOCH
HOVEA
COOGEE
BIBRA LAKE
DAGLISH
WOODVALE
KARDINYA
GOOSEBERRY HILL
*Data is all to July 2013 and the source is RP Data