As Sydney's property prices continue to fall, there are more buyers in some parts of the city where prices have been prohibitive for some buyers. According to the latest Domain House Price Report, prices in Sydney showed the biggest drop in more than two decades, falling 9.9 percent last year alone.
The result is that more first-home buyers are entering the market and other buyers are settling in areas that were once out of reach. Penshurst, near Sydney's CBD, was the biggest faller, falling 19.7 per cent in a year to a $1.06 million as the median price for the single house. Steve Beattie, a real-estate agent for McGrath Cronulla, said a number of buyers had already been getting a good deal. "There are people who are going to sell apartments and buy houses, and they want to take action quickly," he said.
Mr. Beattle recently sold an apartment in Penshurst for a client and then bought a three-bedroom, two-brick detached house in the same area. The detached house was originally sold for 1.2 million Australian dollars, but ended up selling for 950,000 Australian dollars. " It was a fantasy in 2015 and 2016," he thinks.
The second biggest faller was Lane Cove, where median annual prices for independent homes fell 18.2 per cent to a $1.8 million. Rebecca Mitchell, a real estate agent in Raine and Horne Lane Cove, said there were more offers on the market than there were a year ago because buyers now have more options as listings increase and competition dwindles.
A recently completed four-bedroom detached house in the area was sold for the same price as a tiny two-bedroom house she sold two years ago, Ms. Mitchell says. And a house with a cramped bathroom or bedroom is now "almost impossible to sell."
Many buyers who want to trade in a smaller home for a bigger one may have lost as much as $50,000 on the sale, but they could have saved more on their next purchase.
Sydney resident Paul Costin recently sold the Five Dock house and then bought a four-bedroom detached house with a swimming pool in Lane Cove, which he couldn't have imagined a year ago.
Mr. Kostin, who won an auction against another bidder, said the new home is almost twice the size of its previous home. Falling home prices have allowed them to buy in areas they hadn't considered in the past. The Domain house price report also showed that the median price of independent houses in the inner and western parts of Sydney more than tripled in areas where the median price was 1.5 million Australian dollars or less. Hot areas like Newtown, Erskineville and Leichhardt are more affordable than Earlwood was in 2017.
On Sydney's lower north shore, Willoughby is also now more affordable than the blue valley at the peak of the market. In the east area, Bronte owners, whose median home price was as high as $3.5 million, can now buy for less in Rose Bay, where the median price has fallen to $3.375 million from $4,092,080.
In Sydney's south area, buyers with a budget of a $1 million can now buy a home 20km from the city. Where there used to be only enough money to buy houses in Engadine and Heathcote, now houses in Bexley and Peakhurst can be bought.