SEARCH: Does your home earn more than you do?

Queensland owner-occupiers in 61 postcodes are now potentially earning more per year from their home than their employer. Do you live in one of them? >>>INTERACTIVE

Queensland owner-occupiers in 61 postcodes are now potentially earning more per year from their home than their employer.

And those postcodes include everywhere from capital city hipster suburbs to million-dollar beachside havens, hinterland hideaways, and affordable coastal enclaves in regional Queensland.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEARCH THE INTERACTIVE

This uninhabitable house at Hawthorne surprised agents when it went under the hammer for more than $2 million in front of a crowd of almost 300. On a 810sqm block with city views, the owner, who passed away, had lived in the house for half a century

REA Group analysts have crunched the numbers to compare house values in 2018/19 (before Covid-19) and 2020/21, the peak of the pandemic property palooza, and compared that growth to the average annual salary (2018/19).

And with the brakes firmly on wages growth, that pre-pandemic paycheck is unlikely to have moved much so it is little wonder that bricks and mortar have become the sweet spot.

REA Group economist Paul Ryan said that while houses within a postcode might be earning more than their owners, that might not be the case for all owners across all suburbs within that postcode.

Equally, he said, there would be owners in some suburbs earning more from their home than their boss, but the overall postcode may not have made the final cut.

“That is what is interesting about what we have seen in recent times,” he said.

“And in some places that will be creating tension, in places where locals may feel they are seeing blow-ins coming in and thinking how can they compete.”

This Moolalah Valley home on the Sunshine Coast attracted six registered bidders and sold for $75,000 over its reserve in August

But he said many regions in Queensland had benefited from low interest rates and migration, with the southeast corner feeling the most heat.

Leading the charge is the postcode of 4567 – home to Queensland’s most expensive real estate – where the average wage was $56,207, but the median house price has jumped from $1.06 million in 2018/19 to $1.52 million in 2020/21 – a median price change of $460,000, or $230,000 a year.

It is here you will find the suburbs of Castaways Beach, Little Cove, Noosa Heads, Sunrise Beach and Sunshine Beach, with each one in the sights of celebrities and business people, many fleeing interstate Covid-19 lockdown hot spots.

Just recently, a house at Sunshine Beach sold off-market for a new Queensland residential record of $34 million.

The hush-hush deal was widely rumoured to have been sealed by Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart.

And in July, a humble bungalow built 37 years ago on a $63,000 waterfront Noosa Sound block sold for $7.25 million at auction.

Tom Offermann of Tom Offermann Real Estate said property values had been escalated by “a lot of people who don’t actually live here”.

The Gold Coast has been a magnet for interstate buyers and expats. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

“You look at the wage data versus property values and you have to ask, how can they afford it?” he said, adding that many of the eye-watering prices that had led to huge growth had been driven by cashed-up interstate buyers and expats.

“But for many (homeowners), time has also served them well with high capital growth.”

Mr Offermann said anyone who had purchased property, even as little as five years ago, was sitting pretty, with Noosa Heads home values up around 88 per cent in five years alone.

“And it will continue,” Mr Offerman said. “The depth of the market is very strong, right through to 2022, because of the high volume of buyers waiting for borders to open, for the sale of their own property, and for school placements.”

The state’s second top earning postcode was 4005 – home to the Brisbane suburbs of New Farm, Teneriffe and Brisbane City.

There, the average median house price has shot up from $1.625 million to $2.125 million – an increase of $250,000 a year.

The average salary, according to ATO data, was $83,121 in 2018/19, meaning a house in the coveted postcode could now earn 3.01 times the average annual salary.

It was one of a number of Brisbane postcodes to make the list.

Ray White New Farm principal Matt Lancashire said the rate of growth in Brisbane had been “insane”.

And he believes that growth will accelerate once domestic and international borders open.

“I would say that, in the high-end market, you have a 50/50 chance of selling to a local or to an interstate buyer or expat, and about 70 per cent of interstate buyers are buying sight unseen,” he said.

“People say we have a stock issue but we did 30 per cent more transactions ... there is just 50 per cent more buyers.

“The only thing that could really slow it down is if banks slow down lending.”

Brisbane real estate is hot property.

Rounding out the top three was postcode 4183 – home to Point Lookout, Dunwich, Amity Point and North Stradbroke Island.

House values there have skyrocketed from $550,000 in 2018/19 to $810,000 in 2020/21, and the number of house sales doubled, according to the REA data.

But the average salary was $51,148, meaning houses could now be earning 2.54 times the annual wage.

Homeowners on the Gold Coast are also sitting pretty, with those in 4225 raining in equity glitter.

Encompassing Coolangatta, Bilinga and Gold Coast proper, the postcode has seen its overall median house value jump from $807,250 to $1,062,500 – a rise of $255,250, or almost $129,000 a year, against an average income of $51,665 across the district.

But it is not just the southeast corner’s beachside suburbs where homeowners – or unit owners – are sitting on a gold mine.

Owners with properties in the hinterland and rural suburbs of the Sunshine Coast, and in the Fraser Coast and Cassowary Coast regions are also reaping the real estate rewards.

Mr Ryan said that with values continuing to rise, and demand showing no sign of slowing down, many more owners and postcodes could soon see their homes earning more than they do.

This Mermaid Beach house attracted 11 registered bidders and sold for $2.305 million

And when all borders opened, that demand could reach dizzying heights, he said.

“I think there will be a lot of demand for Australia,” Mr Ryan said. “Australia has done quite well during the pandemic, and it is still viewed as a safe democracy.

“I think we will see migration return strongly, and that will have a positive effect on Queensland.”

MORE NEWS: Slice of QLD ‘barra-dise’ to go under the hammer

Lending crackdown to combat soaring house prices

‘Best beach block in Australia’ set to shake QLD coastal records

Originally published as SEARCH: Does your home earn more than you do?