One in five homes sold for $1m or more

A record number of Australians spent $1 million or more to secure a home in the past year, CoreLogic’s annual Million Dollar Markets report reveals.

Over the year to March 2022, CoreLogic collected 596,733 sales nationally, up 19.8 per cent from the 497,923 sales recorded the previous year. Of these, 23.8 per cent sold for $1 million or more.

The report’s author, CoreLogic research analyst Kaytlin Ezzy, said Australia’s bullish economic and property performance during the latter part of 2021 led to a record result for both the volume of transactions and the proportion of million-dollar sales.

In the year to May, an additional 487 markets (450 house and 37 unit markets) joined the million-dollar club. In total 1,367 or 30.4 per cent of house and unit markets analysed in May recorded a median value of $1 million or more.

“High consumer sentiment, tight advertised supply, and low interest rates fuelled strong home value growth throughout 2021, resulting in a new record high annual growth rate of 22.4 per cent over the 12 months to January,” Ms Ezzy said.

“Despite values having risen across all capital cities and rest of state areas annually, we have seen a divergence in growth conditions across markets over the year to date.

“Since January, dwelling values across Sydney and Melbourne have started to decline, while values have continued to rise across South Australia and Queensland. More recently, Canberra, which had previously recorded many months of consecutive growth, recorded its first falls in dwelling values in some years in May.”

Regional housing markets have shown a stronger growth trend through the pandemic to date compared to capital cities, with values up 41.4 per cent across regional Australia since March 2020 compared with a 21.8 per cent rise across the combined capital city markets.

In regional Victoria, 22 house markets made the million-dollar list, of which most were in Geelong, where Aireys Inlet houses had the highest median at $2,189,874.

In Melbourne, a five-bedroom property in Orrong Road, Toorak sold for $38.5 million in February and the most expensive regional sale in 2022 has been a six-bedroom beachfront home on Hedges Avenue at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast, which sold for $21.5 million in May.

The report shows Sydney suburbs made up 26.3 per cent of the new million-dollar markets, which Ms Ezzy said is unsurprising given the city’s median dwelling value, which has sat above $1 million since May 2021.

Significant trophy sales in some of the country’s top prestige markets have been recorded in the year to date, including the $60 million transaction of a north-facing six-bedroom, six-bathroom waterfront home on Lindsay Avenue, Darling Point in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Australia’s housing demand, transactions and national median values have eased gradually over recent months amid growing global uncertainly and affordability constraints.

CoreLogic’s Home Value Index recorded the first monthly fall in national values in May, and Ms Ezzy said high non-discretionary inflation coupled with rising interest rates would likely see household budgets tighten in the coming months, further dampening housing demand over the medium term.

“As the market moves into the downward phase of the cycle it’s likely a number of the recent entrants to the million-dollar list will see their median values decline below the $1 million mark,” she said.

“Despite this, Australian household wealth hit record high levels at the end of the March quarter, driven by continued strength in the housing market largely driven by gains across the real estate sector.”