Sydney the only capital void of sub $500k houses

According to CoreLogic’s Property Pulse, the five closest suburbs to Sydney’s CBD with a median house price of $500,000 or less are in the Central Coast.

The Central Coast suburb of Bar Point, which has a median house price of $379,776 (39.5km), was the closest suburb to Sydney’s centre with a median house price below $500,000, followed by Spencer ($391,163/45.8km), Gunderman ($407,727/51.8km), Charmhaven ($484,316/75.7km) and Budgewoi ($489,592/76.6km).

CoreLogic’s research follows regional population and migration data for 2016–17, recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which revealed that a significant number of capital city residents opted to relocate over the 2016–17 financial year, with more than 40,000 Sydneysiders seeking housing alternatives.

The data revealed that most Sydney residents moved along the NSW coast, with Newcastle and Lake Macquarie topping the list with 5,502 former Sydney residents, followed by Illawarra in NSW (5,301), the ACT (5,219), Queensland’s Gold Coast (5,179), NSW’s mid-north coast (4,484), Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven (4,435), Hunter Valley (3,997), Central West (3,647), Melbourne’s inner city (3,511) and Melbourne’s west (3,098). 

Sydney did not feature on the top 10 regions of arrival list for former Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart or Darwin residents. However, Sydney featured six times on the top 10 regions of arrival list for former Canberra residents, and once for former Adelaide residents.

“Most capital cities have seen a significant decline in suburbs with a median value below $500,000 over recent years, meaning that to access more affordable housing buyers have to move further away from the city centre,” CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said.

Further, CoreLogic also reported that the closest suburbs other Australian capitals with a median house price of less than $500,000 include:

• Closest to Melbourne’s CBD - Dallas ($447,221/16.1km)
• Closest to Brisbane’s CBD - Rocklea ($419,922/8.8km)
• Closest to Adelaide’s CBD – Hindmarsh ($436,500/3.5km)
• Closest to Perth’s CBD - Glendalough ($422,718/5.1km)
• Closest to Hobart’s CBD - Montagu Bay ($438,110/3.0km)
• Closest to Darwin’s CBD - Millner ($489,351/8.1km)
• Closest to Canberra’s CBD - Charnwood ($452,226/12.2km)

[Related: Residents flee Sydney in search of affordable homes]