Despite home prices falling as the Reserve Bank’s rate rise regime bites, it took just 16 months for home values to double in one seaside village.
PropTrack data has revealed that Boat Harbour, a suburb of Port Stephens in NSW, about 200km north of Sydney, was the nation’s strongest performer in median home value growth.
The median price in the Hunter Valley suburb jumped an eye-watering 102 per cent to $1.7 million from $846,250 in the 16 months to May, 2023.
Proston, west of the Sunshine Coast, was Queensland’s top performer, taking 20 months to double, albeit from a lower base—$117,500 to $235,000.
In Victoria, Wy Yung in East Gippsland topped the list according to PropTrack, doubling from $417,500 to $840,000 over two years.
Where values doubled the quickest
PropTrack said that while home prices fell throughout much of last year, strong demand and limited stock has spurred five months of price gains this year.
It found that property market activity had bounced back in May after a quieter, public-holiday-affected April.
“Even so, activity remains more subdued than last year’s busy pace, continuing 2023’s trend of slower listings activity,” the report said.
“Nationally, new listings on realestate.com.au increased 18.7 per cent month-on-month compared to April. But compared to last year, new listings were down 16.8 per cent in May.”
The story was similar across the capital cities, with all recording a new listings bounce back from April, but none keeping pace with last year.
Across the capital cities, new listings were up 20.5 per cent month-on-month, but were down 19.2 per vent compared to May last year.
“While a notable year-on-year decline, it in part reflects the busy pace of activity property markets were maintaining in the first half of 2022 before activity began to slow in winter,” PropTrack said.
Both Sydney and Melbourne recorded fewer new listings this May compared to last year (down 17.5 per cent and 19 per vent respectively).
Hobart continued to be one of the more-active capital city property markets, but even so, new listings were down 6.6 per cent compared to last year.
