Recovery-leading postcodes: Best-performing suburbs within 15km of a CBD

Property hunters are paying a premium to be closer to the city centres – and some suburbs have seen their median house and unit prices skyrocket over the past year, data shows.

Domain analysis has revealed the top-performing suburbs within 15 kilometres of the CBD in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth.

While some of the recovery-leading suburbs are affluent, not every growth suburb is blue chip; there are some pockets near city centres where the median house and unit prices are affordable, even after strong growth.

Sydney 

The wealthy suburbs of Sydney have come out on top, with four of the seven postcodes recording seven-figure medians.

The most affordable of the bunch was Rockdale, where the median unit price was $700,000, up 7.7 per cent over the year. Milsons Point recorded the strongest growth in the past 12 months, with a median of $2.575 million, up 25 per cent over the year. 

But it was Bellevue Hill that shone with a median of $9 million, up 18.4 per cent over the year. Over the past five years, that median skyrocketed by 61.8 per cent.

Alex Lyons of Raine & Horne Double Bay says the convenience of location is what sets Bellevue Hill apart from other suburbs.

“You’re halfway between Double Bay and Bondi Beach … you still have that suburban quieter feel with great local shops but you’re also in the mix of the city,” he says.

Lyons attributes the suburb’s growth to the high-end sales that have occurred in the last year due to competitive buyers.

“I’ve sold houses [here] for up to $61.5 million and we’ve sold units for $1.5 million … there’s a mix of good properties around and high demand. I’m selling a home at the moment and, at the start, it had a price guide of $3.5 million but now there’s an offer of $6.25 million,” he says.

“There’s a lot of growth here. Once you get here, it’s hard to leave.”

Melbourne

While Sydney’s property prices topped out at $9 million, properties that measured the strongest price increases near Melbourne’s CBD didn’t go nearly as high.

In Kew, the median house price was $2.78 million, up 9.9 per cent over the year, while the median unit price in North Melbourne was $540,000 up 6.6 per cent over the year.

Over the five-year period, the median unit price in Alphington increased by 48.9 per cent to $1.78 million – the strongest five-year growth of all the suburbs close to the CBD in Melbourne.

Real estate agent John Chartres of Thomson – who specialises in the Armadale, where the median house price was $2,720,500, up 10.5 per cent over the year – says there is a “supply and demand issue” in a number of suburbs.

“Armadale, for instance, is not a very big suburb … and when there are not enough properties that come into the market and meet the demand, it holds the price,” he says.

“All demographics, from upsizers to downsizers, want to get into the market in Armadale, even an apartment, because, while [it is] not far from the CBD, they also want to be close to High Street which is very popular at the moment and I think, the number one [place] for retail shopping right now.”

Brisbane

Prices near Brisbane’s city centre were more in line with each other than those in other capital cities over the past year.

In fact, the house or unit prices within 15 kilometres of the CBD ranged between $420,000 in Richlands, up 15.1 per cent over the year, to $557,750 in Alderley, up 25.1 per cent over the same period. 

All but one recorded a six-figure median, and that was Rochedale, where the median house price was $1,582,500, up 17.2 per cent over the year. 

“Rochedale is a near-new suburb, roughly 10 years old, so a lot of people are moving here for new properties – [those] who don’t like a lot of yard work and just want a move-in-ready home,” says Emily Xiong of LJ Hooker Property Partners – SunnyBank Hills & Mount Gravatt.

“Over the last two years, particularly, the cost and time of building a home has increased and so we’ve found a lot of buyers have been buying existing houses rather than buying land to build on or knocking down an existing one to rebuild.”

The appeal of shiny new things has attracted many property hunters, Xiong adds.

“It’s a developing area. We have a new school here and it’s attached many young families in the area, and young couples,” she says.

Perth

In Perth, a number of houses recorded strong growth over the year, but the only units to appear in the list were those in Perth city, with a median of $345,000, up 16 per cent over the year.

Over in Swanbourne, the median house price was $2,115,000, up 20.3 per cent over the year. In five years, this was up 49.3 per cent.

Jayson Renouf of Renouf Real Estate says the suburb has very few properties and has, therefore, created strong demand.

“It’s a small suburb of only about 1500 houses but I certainly think there’s been a lot of growth there,” he says. “We benefit from a lot of the oil, gas and also medical migration so a number of buyers have migrated from interstate.

“Swanbourne is an oceanside suburb that provides convenient access to 90 per cent of the best schools in the state … so a lot of families tend to eyeball houses in this suburb.”

Adelaide

The strongest postcode within 15 kilometres of the CBD in Adelaide is also the most affordable of those highlighted, Domain data has revealed.

The median unit price in Glenelg North was $535,000, up 52.9 per cent over the year and 72.6 per cent in five years.

Rod Smitheram of Ray White Glenelg credited the suburb’s strong growth to first-home buyers.

“There’s a property here that sold for $800,000 recently, and five years ago, we would’ve struggled to sell that for $550,000 … so units have become very popular because they’re affordable,” he says.

“Before COVID, nobody wanted a strata unit and now people can’t get enough of them. I spoke to a city [agent] who said he has 400 people on his client list that are ready to go and buy apartments in Adelaide from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – all who want to invest here.”

Canberra

All of Canberra’s best-performing suburbs over the 12 months to June took their spot due to unit sales. Closest to the CBD is the prestigious Barton – located just south of the city centre and next door to Capital Hill – where the median price has risen by 25.6 per cent.

But its strongest suburb is Denman Prospect, a 15-minute drive south-west of Canberra’s city centre, where units have soared by a massive 28.7 per cent.

Brett Hayman of Hayman Partners says the growth can be attributed to the quality of the apartments on offer, as well as the convenience of the location.

“Terry Snow – he’s the developer who owns the Canberra airport – is well known in Canberra for his quality and for  everything being done properly. People have come to buy units here for that reason,” he says.

“But it’s also the location – it’s got easy access to all parts of Canberra, you can go north-south very easily and all the roads that go directly into the city.

“There are excellent amenities; parks, shops and nature reserves. Just in general, it’s a fantastic area.”