What the national median house price of almost $956,000 buys across Australia's cities
Australia’s median house price has reached a record high, with house hunters now spending about $150,000 more than they did a year ago on the typical home.
Australians need to fork out $955,927 when buying at the nation’s median house price, which jumped 5.8 per cent over the quarter and a whopping 18.8 per cent over the year, according to Domain figures.
What you can expect to buy on such a budget varies across the country. From barely habitable houses to large family homes, here’s what the median price will get you in some of our biggest cities.
Sydney
As the nation’s most expensive city, with a record median house price of $1.41 million, those with less than $1 million to spend on a house in Sydney have slimmer pickings than in other cities.
Still, buyers could get their hands on a typical house in suburbs such as Condell Park ($955,000), Bankstown ($955,000) and Bossley Park ($945,000) in the city’s south-west or head to the likes of Leura ($945,000) in the Blue Mountains.
At the median price, buyers in the Canterbury Bankstown region would likely get a duplex, townhouse or villa. However, some older free-standing houses on smaller blocks may be within reach, said Ali Saleh of Harcourts Greenacre. He recently sold a new three-bedroom, three-bathroom duplex in the region for $950,000.
The price point is dominated by first-home buyers, though downsizers and buyers upsizing from units also compete for such homes, Mr Saleh said, with the area increasingly drawing buyers priced out of other markets, such as the inner west, Sutherland Shire and the St George area.
Elsewhere, buyers have recently purchased three-bedroom houses in suburbs like Sevens Hills, 27 kilometres north-west of the CBD, and in Mount Druitt, 38 kilometres west, for close to the national median.
Melbourne
In Victoria’s capital, the median house price sits at a record of almost $1,023,000, and house hunters need to turn to the city’s east to find prices close to the national median.
Suburbs like Croydon Hills (with a median of $957,500) and Heathmont ($952,000) in the outer east – both more than 20 kilometres from the city centre – are almost in line with the national median, while MacLeod ($947,500), about 14 kilometres north-east of the CBD, and Frankstown South ($940,000), more than 40 kilometres south-east, come in a little under. Buyers would typically be looking at a three-bedroom house, with one or two bathrooms, at those price points.
Of course, they would get more (or less) home for their money in different areas. In Hoppers Crossing, about 23 kilometres south-west of the city centre, a five-bedroom on a 1012-square-metre block sold for $950,000. Meanwhile, in inner Melbourne, a two-bedroom, one-bathroom semi in West Brunswick and a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house without parking in Footscray sold for the same amount.
Brisbane
House hunters with a budget of around $950,000 can expect to buy much closer to the city centre in Brisbane, where the median house price sits at about $678,000.
The inner suburb of East Brisbane ($955,000), as well as Chapel Hill ($950,000) and Windsor ($945,000) – both less than a 10-kilometre drive from the CBD – have similar medians.
However, to buy into tightly-held East Brisbane at that price point, you’ll likely have to roll up your sleeve and be prepared for a project, said Tony O’Doherty, of Belle Property Bulimba.
“Up until recently, a budget of $900,000 to $1 million was a budget you could confidently go shopping with, but it was harder to buy at that median price point now,” Mr O’Doherty said, adding a barely habitable three-bedroom house he was selling in the best pocket of the suburb could sell for that sort of money.
However, he noted prices were lower in low-lying pockets of the suburb closer to industrial areas.
In nearby Bulimba, a three-bedroom house on a 451-square-metre block sold for $950,000, while further afield an original condition four-bedroom house on a double block in the coastal suburb of Brighton, and a four-bedroom house in Burpengary East in the Moreton Bay Region, sold for the same price.
Perth
Over on the west coast, where Perth has a median house price of almost $596,000 – its highest since 2015 – buyers can nab quite a lovely home for the national median.
Coastal living is in reach in the northern beachside suburb of Sorrento, which has a median of $960,000, while houses in the inner suburb of Mount Lawley sell for a median of $950,000, including a three-bedroom Californian bungalow that traded in the suburb last month.
Elsewhere, buyers have secured a three-bedroom house in East Freemantle, a four-bedroom house on a 1003-square-metre block in Carlisle in the south-east, and a four-bedroom house with a pool in Walliston in the outer east for under the national median.
Canberra
In the nation’s capital, it’s in the suburb of Downer ($967,500), in the city’s inner north, where buyers are most likely to find a house at the national median, according to Domain data.
A four-bedroom house in Downer sold for around that price in March, though property prices in the city climbed about 10 per cent over the June quarter, pushing the Canberra median to a record of $1,015,833.
More recently, sales around the national median have been further afield, including a four-bedroom house in Bonner and a newer three-bedroom house in Harrison, both in the Gungahlin region and a purple four-bedroom house in Page in the Belconnen district.
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