The popular NSW tree-change towns where property prices jumped

A town most famous for a blowhole that has on occasion proved deadly has blown Byron Bay out of the water when it comes to property prices.

Kiama, south of Sydney, has become the place where property prices have risen the most in regional NSW in the past five years – by 80.7 per cent. Its median price of $1.5 million eclipses even the idyllic north coast township.

The latest Domain House Price Report reveals Kiama to be the standout star of the regions. Its price is only $128,000 behind Sydney’s new record median of $1,628,000 and far beyond glamourpuss Byron’s median of $1,327,500.

“Kiama is really the regional NSW standout with such strong growth over the past five years and a steady 10.3 per cent rise over the past year,” said the report’s author, Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell.

“This shows to me that previously affordable areas not too far from Sydney are still proving popular, despite the rate of price growth in regional areas generally slowing.”

With house prices in Sydney still rising, 11.1 per cent over the past year and 2.1 per cent in the last quarter, it means sea-changers have enough equity in their city homes to push prices higher in a coastal town such Kiama, 120 kilometres away.

Kiama property prices have soared.Credit: Wolter Peeters

“That price growth is amazing from our point of view,” said Sam Lathbury of First National Coast and Country, Kiama. “But we’re still seeing people coming here for a sea change, particularly now they don’t have to work in the office all the time.”

“When they’re selling in more affluent areas, they’re finding prices are cheap here and offer good value.”

Other NSW regions have also seen price increases in the latest report. In Narrabri, on the North West Slopes, 520km northwest of Sydney, house prices rose the most in NSW by 13.4 per cent over the last year, although from a low base to a record median of only $380,000.

Traditionally a strong agricultural town with grain, cotton, wool, cattle, and sheep, it now has much more coal mining and gas extraction with Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project. Construction is slated for the Inland Rail, which supports freight transport to Adelaide and Perth.

“We’re also becoming a research hub with a lot of research stations like the CSIRO,” said Kim Rozendaal, of KR Property. “We even have our own airport. With all these new industries and projects starting up, we just don’t have enough housing for the workers coming in. As a result of more demand than supply, prices are rising fast.”

Gunnedah, in north central NSW, a producer of coal, cotton, beef, lamb, pork, cereal and grains, is another town where a shortage of worker accommodation is driving up prices by 12.3 per cent in the past 12 months to a modest $465,000.

The cheapest place to buy a house in NSW, the far west outback town of Broken Hill, where the median house price is just $193,500, had handsome gains of 10.6 per cent over the year. Lead-zinc ore mining and a large solar plant have helped prop up the town.

Yet some regions have fallen sharply in price. Lismore prices slumped by 14.6 per cent in the last year to a median of $510,000. “But that’s mostly because of the terrible floods in 2022, which saw prices dive,” said Powell.

Floods hit Lismore in 2022.Credit: Natalie Grono

Most of the other areas that had sharp falls are usually those where prices soared during the pandemic. Snowy Monaro which includes Jindabyne, Thredbo, Berridale and Cooma, was the area where prices rose most in NSW during 2021, by 50.8 per cent. Over the last 12 months, the median has now dropped 14 per cent to a median of $585,000.

“We had the third-biggest price rise in the country in 2021/22, but it was so big, it was silly,” said Michael Henley, director of Henley Property Sales. Now we are coming off, and it’s a bittersweet pill for a lot of people to take when they want to sell after buying at the height of the market.

Armidale Regional Council, in the Northern Tablelands, recorded a price jump of 29.6 per cent over 2022, then endured the next biggest drop in its median price in the past year, by 7.6 per cent to $465,000.

“Most of that has been sales of higher priced properties slowing,” said Brad Ramage of The Professionals, Armidale. “They’ve been hit by interest rate rises more than the market for cheaper properties in town.”