MORE Queensland homeowners are now millionaires, with new research revealing a near 50 per cent jump in the number of million dollar suburbs in the past decade.
By the end of 2017, the state had 38 suburbs with a median home value of $1 million or higher — 15 more than the year before, according to property research firm, CoreLogic.
While traditional blue-chip pockets such as Ascot, Hamilton and New Farm have stood the test of time — making the million dollar club every year since 2007 — it’s the new kids on the block that may come as a surprise.
The little known Queensland suburbs of Willawong, Mount Samson and Kalinga have all cracked the million-dollar value ceiling in the past year.
And for the first time, Wilston, West End, Paddington, Hendra, Highgate Hill, Ashgrove and Auchenflower have burst through the $1 million median home value barrier.
On the Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise has made the million dollar club nine out of the past 10 years, while Bundall is a newcomer.
Further north on the Sunshine Coast, Shelly Beach in Caloundra made the list for the first time ever in 2017, joining the usual suspects of Noosa Heads and Sunshine Beach.
In the state’s north, Castle Hill in Townsville is the only suburb to achieve million-dollar status, while in central Queensland, the holiday resort town of 1770 has made the list several times over the past decade.
Even the Logan suburb of Park Ridge joined the club briefly for a year in 2010.
The number of suburbs in Queensland with a median home value of $1 million or more grew by 48 per cent in the past ten years.
CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher said he expected that growth to continue in 2018, although perhaps not at the same rate as in the past 12 months.
“What we’re seeing in southeast Queensland at the moment is migration is picking up,” Mr Kusher said.
“I think Queensland might see more million dollar suburbs over the next 12 to 24 months as that level of migration continues to picks up.
“But I wouldn’t be surprised if the jump (in values) is not as substantial in 2018 as it was in 2017.”
Mr Kusher said it would only be a matter of time before home values in more of Brisbane’s inner ring suburbs pushed through the $1 million barrier, as well as more suburbs on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.
“That inner ring has been quite strong for houses over the past 12 months or so and clearly lack of supply in the detached housing market and strong demand is pushing up values, which is what you’d expect,” he said.
Robert Evans saw the potential in the north Brisbane suburb of Hendra a few years ago when he bought a block of land and built a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house at 18 Harding Street.
Mr Evans has used the architecturally designed home as an investment property and enjoyed healthy rental returns, but is taking it to auction later this month.
“There’s no other house like it in Hendra,” Mr Evans said.
Hendra is only 6km from Brisbane’s CBD and the median house value in the suburb is now$1.00784 million.
“It’s a good area, it’s quiet, close to the airport and offers good yields,” Mr Evans said.
“That’s why we built there.”
Marketing agent Leigh Kortlang of Ray White Ascot has been selling real estate in Hendra for nearly 15 years and has seen home values rise considerably in that time.
“When I moved to Hendra 18 years ago, people said ‘what are you doing crossing the train tracks’,” she said.
“People started moving in to the area because it was a bit cheaper than surrounding suburbs (like Ascot, Hamilton and Clayfield), but now it’s on everyone’s shopping list because they actually want to live in Hendra.”
Ms Kortlang said the suburb was considered “a bit more laid-back”, with quiet, wide streets lined with Poinsiana trees and bigger blocks of land.
Between 2012 and 2017 — when the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets entered an upswing — the number of $1 million suburbs nationally increased by a whopping 243 per cent.
And by the end of last year, almost 1000 suburbs across the country hit the million dollar median value mark.
But Mr Kusher said he did not expect the surge in home values in Sydney and Melbourne to continue this year.
“With the national housing market slowing over the final quarter of 2017, we may actually see fewer suburbs with a million dollar price tag at the end of 2018,” Mr Kusher said.
“In fact, the current data points to the fact that the housing slowdown, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, is being led by the higher value end of the market.
“As a result, this may lead to a number of $1 million suburbs slipping out of the list in the two largest housing markets over the coming year.”
QUEENSLAND’S NEW MILLION DOLLAR CLUB
Suburb House/unit Median value
Ascot House $1,639,995
Ashgrove House $1,009,882
Auchenflower House $1,106,010
Broadbeach Waters House $1,134,991
Brookfield House $1,022,382
Bulimba House $1,199,385
Bundall House $1,070,066
Burbank House $1,113,467
Castaways Beach House $1,057,405
Castaways Beach Unit $1,241,197
Chandler House $1,336,866
Chelmer House $1,183,319
Clayfield House $1,140,050
Clear Island Waters House $1,151,038
Fig Tree Pocket House $1,028,710
Fortitude Valley House $1,018,262
Hamilton House $1,417,327
Hawthorne House $1,196,229
Hendra House $1,007,840
Highgate Hill House $1,062,097
Kalinga House $1,133,852
Main Beach House $1,674,362
Mermaid Beach House $1,399,733
Minyama House $1,057,460
Mount Samson House $1,038,904
New Farm House $1,407,876
Noosa Heads House $1,004,007
Paddington House $1,077,237
Pullenvale House $1,088,506
Shelly Beach House $1,002,906
St Lucia House $1,197,301
Sunshine Beach House $1,363,637
Surfers Paradise House $1,332,778
Teneriffe House $1,589,892
Tennyson Unit $1,104,751
West End House $1,002,369
Willawong House $1,224,624
Wilston House $1,064,768
(Source: CoreLogic, data current to end of 2017)