Booming house prices rocket new suburbs into $3m club

Runaway house prices in Sydney show little sign of slowing down, with a host of new suburbs set to join the $3 million average house price club.

Once considered an industrial offshoot down river from Sydney’s manufacturing hubs at Rhodes and Mortlake, ­riverside suburb Putney now headlines the latest areas of the city set to burst through the average house price mark of $3 million.

Putney is joined by Avalon Beach, Manly Vale and Naremburn as the latest suburbs within 2 per cent of breaching the multimillion-dollar mark, meaning they could potentially join the 61 Sydney suburbs already in the $3 million club within the next month.

The latest figures from CoreLogic also show inner west suburbs Haberfield and Drummoyne are within spitting distance, thanks to Sydney’s runaway house prices.

A home in Drummoyne will now set you back an average of $2,757,058 compared to $1,158,944 a decade ago, while Haberfield has grown from $1,298,736 to $2,800,350 in the same period.

The lack of slowdown in Sydney’s market has stirred homebuyers desperate to buy in the inner west into action.

Adrian and Vanessa with daughter Leah, 4, outside their recently purchased home in Haberfield, one of the suburbs set to break the $3m average price mark in coming months. Picture: Toby Zerna

“The market was jumping — we’ve been looking since October last year, when we could have bought here in the high twos (millions),” Van­essa, who bought an unrenovated, four-bedroom home at Haberfield with husband Adrian earlier this year, told The Daily Telegraph. “We paid $3.3 million.

“It’s a really up-and-coming area which used to be reasonably priced, but it’s ­really jumping now.”

Sales agent at Belle ­Property Drummoyne, Ric Pattaro, said while homes were selling below the $3 million regularly last year, “now everything has a three in front of it”. “I think it’ll just continue that way,” he said.

“Properties in the suburb (have sold) for $4.6 million, $5.2 million, over the $6 million mark.”

North of the Parramatta River, Putney resident Mike Salinos said the suburb had changed greatly in the nearly three decades he had lived there.

An average home in the riverside suburb now costs $2,944,569, up from $1,209,046 just 10 years ago.

Putney residents Mike and Wendy Salinos have seen the suburb transform. Picture: Toby Zerna

“When I moved here, it was semirural — there was a guy down the road with half an acre and two horses,” Mr Salinos said.

“There’s been a bit of a transformation from the two or three-bedroom fibros to the McMansions and glass balconies (you see now).”

CoreLogic’s head of research Eliza Owen said low interest rates and lack of stock had driven price growth, as well as buyers saving up during the pandemic.

“Demand conditions remain fairly resilient across NSW, despite Sydney lockdowns and a slowdown in the monthly growth rate of home prices,” she said.

“The slight loss of momentum in NSW dwelling values has seen monthly growth rates go from a recent peak of 3.5 per cent in March 2021, to 2.0 per cent as of July.”

Originally published as Booming house prices rocket new suburbs into $3m club