Why There’s No ‘Sydney’ Property Market.

The latest data from CoreLogic is out and the good news for property owners in Sydney is that property values have increased by 18.2%.

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On the surface, this looks like a very good result and one that I’m sure many people are talking about. The thing is, this number doesn’t really matter.

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In fact, there really is no ‘Sydney’ property market at all.

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One of the biggest myths or errors that people make when assessing a property market is to look at the headline numbers they read in the paper or see on the nightly news. While it’s good and important that house prices are rising as they do the vast majority of the time in a place like Sydney, it’s vital to understand that there is no one Sydney market.

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The CoreLogic data looks at the overall change in dwelling value. However, Sydney and all property markets and made up of many smaller sub-markets. Each with its own unique characteristics and each one moving at a different pace, fueled by different buyer demographics with different requirements when it comes to property.?

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Then underneath those submarkets, there are different property types to consider and even different price points, within those sub-markets that all perform very differently.

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Looking at what has been happening recently in Sydney in the Eastern Suburbs, there have been significant gains made in the upper end of the property market. Properties that are priced at $10-15 million or more have been incredibly strong over the past 12 months and we are still seeing high demand at the moment.

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Homes priced between $3-5 million are also seeing robust demand and are performing exceptionally well at the moment. At the same time, there is a huge lack of supply with these types of homes and still, many buyers lined up.

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Overall, homes in this upper bracket in the Eastern Suburbs are heavily owner-occupier driven and we should expect them to keep on performing well, even if the broader market slows down. The latest CoreLogic data shows that houses in Sydney have grown by 23% over the past 12 months and it’s fair to say that the higher end of the market is really driving the gains.

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Looking at the apartment market in Sydney’s East and we can see that there are again a number of sub-markets. Notably, we see properties priced between $900,000-$1,100,000 and then $1,200,000 to $2,500,000. These segments of the market are also strong but at the same time are driven by different people who are buying for different reasons.

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People look at statistics on a very high level, but when it comes to property, that can be a big mistake.

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Despite where we might be at in the broader property cycle, there are always sub-markets that are stronger than others and always opportunities for good investments.

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Your job is to dig down and look beneath the headline numbers and see what is happening on a micro-level. That’s where you’ll find the best opportunities.

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