Demand but no supply as prices head north 600K

Ｅ覞鐘情

漲漲漲漲漲，要買趁早，上左車再講。

Demand but no supply as prices head north
JESSICA MAHAR AND ERIK JENSEN
March 4, 2010
It's a figure to break the hearts of first home buyers: Sydney's median house price is inching towards $600,000 - almost double what it was a decade ago.

Naturally, that sum will stretch much further in some suburbs than others.

In trendy Potts Point it will net you an unrenovated and original 57 square metre, two-bedroom terrace, while 30 kilometres to the west it buys a top-end, four-bedroom modern brick house in Blacktown on a huge block.

But wherever you look, the story seems to be the same: stock is low and prices are going up. ''It's … definitely up at the moment,'' Jeff Torr, an agent at Century 21 Engadine, said. ''There's just no supply of properties.''

Sydney's median house price is $595,745, according to the Australian Property Monitors.

It's a sum that will make little impact in the eastern suburbs where no houses, semis or terraces were listed at that price yesterday.

Buyers in the east would have to settle for a one- or two-bedroom apartment, agents said. BresicWhitney director Ivan Bresic recently sold a light-filled two-bedroom apartment with a glass atrium in Woollahra for $597,000.

''I don't think the days of buying a house for $600,000 are gone in the east - you could get a small one-bedroom terrace but you don't get them at Bondi, Coogee or Randwick,'' he said.

The owner of GoodyerDonnelley, Debbie Donnelley, said: ''The sort of thing you can buy is a rundown terrace or pretty much just an apartment.''

Over the bridge on the northern beaches, it's a similar story. You have no chance of buying a house for $595,000, the principal of Ray White Collaroy, Lorna Angell, said. ''It would get you a nice two-bedroom unit that's roughly around five years old in Collaroy, Narrabeen or Dee Why.''

Recent price hikes have taken even hardened agents by surprise. Six months ago, today's median house price would get you a three-bedroom brick home in the Engadine area. Now, you would be more likely to get a cladded house.

In January, Mr Torr sold an average cladded home for $585,000. It had three bedrooms and as many car spaces.

''But I put $570,000 on it six months ago … often there's no logic.''

Grant McEnally, an agent at Gilmour Property Agents, Castle Hill, said the median price in his district was about the same as greater Sydney's. ''You'd get a free-standing, three bedroom with one bathroom, one garage for that money,'' he said.

In February, Mr McEnally sold a three-bedroom house on a 929 square metre block for $593,888. A little further from the city, in Stanhope Gardens, a buyer could find a large, modern, two-storey, four-bedroom home for $585,000. One sold last month, with three bedrooms, a stainless steel kitchen, walk-in wardrobes and a swimming pool within landscaped gardens. It was built just three years ago.

In Bankstown, the principal of Ray White Bankstown, Tony Roumanous, said buyers could pick up a brick or brick-veneer property at the top end of the spectrum for $595,000.

''In our area the median is about $450,000, so for $550,000 to $600,000 you're getting a hell of a lot more. It would be three to four bedrooms, fairly tidy and modern.''

Mr Roumanous said there wasn't much stock in Bankstown at the moment.

sunflowerseed

almost double what it was a decade ago:o