High-price growth suburbs a dream result for brokers

A selection of high-growth suburbs have seen upwards of 200% house price growth over the past decade according to PropTrack, helping to propel brokers servicing these lucky buyers to success.

PropTrack data shows $1 million-plus capital gains have been made by home buyers in some of the fastest growing suburbs, with median house price growth across the top 10 suburbs all more than 220%.

Byron Bay topped the list with a staggering 362% growth over the decade since 2013. Median house prices grew from $650,000 to $3m in that time in the suburb, or by a difference of $2.35 million.

The next three Australian price growth leaders were Bright in Victoria (up 256.6% to almost $1.3m), Suffolk Park in NSW (up 256.1% to $2.1m) and Berry in NSW (up $255.9% to $2.1m).

Paul Ryan, senior economist at PropTrack (pictured above left), said the data showed location did matter for buyers.

“The context here is that, nationally, we saw prices up by 83% over the past 10 years, and the data shows that some suburbs did substantially better during that period,” Ryan said. “What that indicates is, while on average property continued to perform really well despite some ups and downs over the decade, the choice of location matters, with a big divergence in performance depending on the location.”

PropTrack’s data showed lifestyle was the big driver of growth for top performing suburbs.

Top performing suburbs over the last 10 years

_{Source: PropTrack}

“Many of these suburbs are lifestyle holiday locations that have really come into national focus over the past decade, in places like coastal, hinterland or alpine-like regions as well – places that have become increasingly appealing and have also changed substantially as a result,” Ryan said.

Across the suburbs that featured in the top 10 list, Ryan said there was already a general level of appeal in these locations before the Covid-19 pandemic, but that it had “supercharged growth”.

In January, PropTrack released a report showing the billion-dollar suburbs nationwide based on total sales for houses and units in 2022.

Growth driving business for brokers

The growth was good news for brokers operating in these regions, with LMG's Greg Cook (pictured above right) able to move his business from Avalon in Sydney to the Byron Bay region due to the rapid growth.

“We started looking to buy a farm up here in 2010, but at the time we couldn’t relocate because the number of transactions and the average income didn’t fit with what we needed,” Cook said.

By 2017, Cook said the profile of the area had “significantly changed”, leading to him being able to buy his dream farm and, during COVID, permanently relocate to the high growth corridor.

“I still have a client base in Sydney, but about 45% of our business now comes from the Northern Rivers, and I would say 70% of those customers are self-employed,” Cook said.

PAYG customers are not a large portion of Cook’s business – what he sees more often and specialises in are complex structures – such as family trusts, SMSFs, and multiple company deals.

With a large portion of the region zoned as rural, Cook said many deals also required brokers to deal with the specialist requirements of rurally zoned properties and associated lending products.

“The main thing we have seen in this region is that there has been a huge demographic shift, there are a high number of self-employed professionals, and house prices have gone up – although they have eased a little bit with what is going on in the economy right now. Byron Bay itself is also different to the rest of the market – it is becoming very unaffordable now,” Cook said.

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