The rapid and dramatic rise of Sunshine Coast house prices has been revealed in a recent report by a prominent real estate appraiser.
The region’s median house price doubled in eight-and-a-half years, according to the PropTrack Market Insight Report released last week.
It was $985,000 in May, compared to $492,500 in early 2015.
PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said the local property market experienced faster growth than most places in the country.
“Sunshine Coast house prices doubled in a short time,” he said.
“Nationally, houses have taken 15.4 years to double.
“Only 11 regions (out of 107 statistical areas) have seen house prices double faster than the national rate.”
Mr Kusher said the region’s real estate gains were accelerated from 2020 to 2022.
“A lot of it has been driven by the very strong increase in property prices through the pandemic, when prices (for homes sold then) more than doubled in three years,” he said.
“More people moving to the region, more people investing in the area and limited stock for sale has driven prices higher.”
But Mr Kusher expected a slowdown.
“It’s unlikely we’ll see price growth follow a similar trajectory over the coming months and years,” he said.
“Rising interest rates and much higher prices, along with other economic and demographic factors, will weigh on the prospects of prices doubling in the future.”
Meanwhile, Sunshine Coast unit prices doubled in about 18.5 years.
The PropTrack report showed that Hobart houses doubled in price quicker than any other region (6.8 years), while houses in parts of regional Queensland took the longest time to double in value (17.8 years).
Some Sunshine Coast suburbs experienced remarkable property price rises during the past five years, and led the way at a national level in that timeframe.
It remains to be seen whether a pause on interest rate rises will significantly affect property prices.
The Reserve Bank on Tuesday announced it was leaving the official cash rate at 4.1 per cent, after 12 interest rate rises in the previous 14 months.
But RBA governor Philip Lowe said there might need to be further rises if the situation calls for it.
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