Property prices surge in parts of Sydney’s north and Hunter Region
Property prices may be falling in much of Sydney, but they are growing in a variety of northern city pockets and one region where large-scale infrastructure upgrades have sparked a boom.
Rapid growth in home prices has flown north for the winter — prices in Sydney’s north and the Hunter Region have been surging over the past year while prices in much of the Harbour City continue to plummet.
Property prices in parts of the Newcastle and Hunter area grew by up to 25 per cent over the past year, while northern Sydney pockets such as Palm Beach bounced up 24 per cent, research from realestate.com.au revealed.
Prices across the Greater Sydney area as a whole dropped about 10 per cent over the same period, according to additional figures from CoreLogic.
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The biggest jump in prices was in the suburb of Dudley, about 14km south of the Newcastle CBD. The median sale price of all properties in the suburb increased 25 per cent to $860,000 — the biggest growth in prices for any NSW suburb.
A mix of suburbs in nearby Maitland also recorded considerable growth, including 21 per cent price growth in Raworth, 15 per cent growth in Bolwarra Heights and 10 per cent growth in next door suburb Tenambit.
The suburb of Maitland recorded 10 per cent growth, with the median sale price of properties hitting $405,000.
Palm Beach was Sydney’s strongest performing suburb, followed by Neutral Bay and northern beaches enclave Collaroy, where price growth was about 20 per cent. Other strong performing suburbs were Vaucluse and Dover Heights.
Many of these Sydney areas experienced a shortage of listings but remained popular with buyers.
Property markets in the Newcastle and Hunter Region were performing strongly due to several major infrastructure projects, according to property group Raine and Horne.
Key projects included expansions of the university and airport at Newcastle.
Newcastle Airport recently signed a $50 million debt facility agreement, which will help facilitate s enhanced airport facilities and thousands of additional jobs over the next five years.
The University of Newcastle has filed a development application for the first stage of a $95 million creative industries and innovation hub.
Maitland, meanwhile, is set to benefit from the $470 million construction of a new hospital.
Raine and Horne-Wallsend principal Tony Tolazzi said the infrastructure would boost the Hunter economy and jobs market, which in turn would prop up housing demand.
“Whether it’s an airport upgrade or new hospital, workers need somewhere to live. It’s as simple as that,” Mr Tolazzi said.
Local agent John Hogan said a boost in confidence from the federal election was also helping the market.
“Turnover and listings are still down, but we expect a stronger spring market now that the uncertainty about property taxes have been removed by the federal election result,” he said.
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Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said some prestige property markets around Sydney were performing strongly because they had different fundamentals than the rest of the city.
Many of the home buyers in these areas (which would include suburbs like Palm Beach and Vaucluse) did not require mortgages to purchase their properties.
That meant they were not impacted by the current credit squeeze, which has pushed prices down in many other parts of Sydney, she said.
Palm Beach may have also had more upside in prices than many other parts of Sydney because real estate values did not move for much of the last 10 years.
Recent Palm Beach sales included the reported $21 million sale of a Phillip Cox-designed beachfront home.
The trophy home, bought by an eastern suburbs family as a weekender, ranks as the third priciest sale so far this year.
Originally published as Property prices surge in parts of Sydney’s north and Hunter Region