The suburb where home values rose 10% during lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic has helped push Australian home values lower for four months in a row, but some suburbs have been bucking the trend in spectacular fashion, new analysis reveals.

Realestate.com.au’s latest update reports that while regional Australia is generally outperforming the broader housing market, expensive suburbs are also surging higher – at odds with historic downturn house price trends.

Chief economist Nerida Conisbee said global data highlights some “interesting trends” in just how resilient house prices have been, with most markets around the world declining only slightly or increasing.

“A lot of this has to do with strong momentum leading up to the ‘Great Lockdown’, however, even on a quarterly basis, we are not seeing the catastrophic falls in house prices we would expect to see following such a sharp increase in unemployment,” she said.

Housing experts have forecast falls of between 10 per cent and 30 per cent, but so far the decline has been fairly slight, with Conisbee saying this is partly due to the fact that most job losses affected renters rather than owners.

“While [this major decline] hasn’t occurred, it isn’t to say it couldn’t,” she added.

“Crucial to stability is continued support for mortgage holders from the banks. The good news is that the RBA has estimated that the lowest point for the Australian economy occurred on the 5th of May and in most of Australia, jobs are coming back.”

And Australia’s expensive housing markets have largely been protected as high income earners faced relatively few job losses, Conisbee said.

Additionally, buyers have been fuelled by record-low interest rates, a sharp increase in the savings rate, record Government stimulus and a surge in popularity for quality homes.

The suburb that soared 10 per cent in three months

Collaroy topped the list of suburb price growth for those with median values over $2 million.

The NSW suburb has seen house prices jump 10 per cent since May, with fellow NSW suburb Woollahra jumping 9 per cent in price.

Conisbee said the top 10 suburbs are a mix of beachside Melbourne and Sydney areas as well as traditionally ritzy suburbs.

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