Affordable regional areas and high-end Sydney suburbs dominate the list of suburbs bouncing back the fastest, according to CoreLogic. They have found that of the top 25 performing suburbs this quarter, 20 are located in regional Australia, spread across SA, VIC, NSW, WA and QLD.

According to CoreLogic, Robe in South Australia was the strongest-performing location over the past three months, growing 8.3 per cent, along with Dinner Plain in Victoria (8 per cent), Trangie (7.4 per cent) and Werris Creek (7.1 per cent) in NSW and Kalbarri in WA (6.9 per cent).

CoreLogic said more affordable locations in regional areas have been seeing demand from buyers. The report said it has been common for regional Australia to dominate growth charts through the pandemic period, but as the cycle has matured, it seems to be more rural regional markets with particularly low price points that have seen the strongest rates of growth.

Dinner Plain in the Victorian Alps, 13km from Mount Hotham, is a striking exception among the top-performing regional suburbs, where values have trended higher following a slight dip through the second half of 2022, the report said.

Along with regional areas, there are also several high-end Sydney suburbs seeing capital growth across the affluent North Sydney and North Shore suburbs. Top performing locations included East Killara (6.8 per cent), Middle Cove (6.4 per cent) and Warrawee (6.4 per cent).

“These suburbs are largely popular with owner-occupiers, having a higher-than-average owner-occupier rate of 76 per cent, compared to an average 63 per cent across Greater Sydney suburbs,” the report said.

The report also found that Sydney and Perth had the highest portion of suburbs that were seeing growth, while Hobart was continuing to struggle. According to the report, “The number of suburbs seeing growth tells us a bit about where these regions are in the cycle. For example, Hobart had just two suburbs that saw dwelling value increases in the quarter, as the city has moved through a steep peak-to-current decline of -12.9 per cent.

Steep price falls in the city follow more than seven years of almost uninterrupted growth, so it is somewhat unsurprising to see such an extended, broad-based decline.”

The report said there was a relatively high volume of suburbs experiencing growth across Sydney and Perth, however, they have very different growth dynamics. “Sydney dwellings are showing signs of a rebound, following a peak-to-trough decline of around 14 per cent over the year to January.”
 

Additionally, the report said that “Sydney often leads inflections in the housing cycle across capital city markets and may be seeing a relatively high portion of markets in growth because it is moving through to the next cyclical phase.

Strong recovery has been concentrated in the high end of the market, with the top five performing suburbs having median dwelling values of at least $1.5 million.”

The current upswing could reflect a hangover of the pandemic and the interest rate environment, where affordable, regional property remains desirable, the report said.