Australia’s skyrocketing property prices have turned some suburban homeowners into overnight millionaires.
In their latest market analysis, CoreLogic revealed that relentless house price growth has pushed another 200 suburbs into the exclusive “million-dollar club” or areas with median house values above $1m.
According to the organisation, there are now 1257 million-dollar markets across the country – an 18.5 per cent jump on the 1057 suburbs with million-dollar price tags in 2023.
Of the 4772 suburbs analysed in the report, 29.3 per cent of them boast values above $1m, outstripping a previous market peak of 26.9 per cent recorded in April 2022.
“At the onset of Covid, just 14.3 per cent of house and unit markets had a median value at or above the $1m mark,” CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said this week.
“With almost 30 per cent of suburbs now posting a seven-figure median, the increase is a natural consequence of rising values and worsening affordability.”
The greater Sydney and Brisbane markets recorded the highest number of new entrants into the million-dollar club for both houses and units, with 46 new suburbs for each area.
The Brisbane boom was propelled by a positive flow of interstate migration and continued undersupply of advertised listings, Ms Ezzy said, with values soaring 65.1 per cent since Covid.
“Such a significant increase in home values has eroded much of the city’s previous affordability advantage, with Brisbane now having the second highest median dwelling value at $875,040 among the capitals,” she said.
The median value of a house in Banyo, which sits adjacent to the Brisbane airport, now sits at $1,046,087, rising 16.8 per cent from $895,842 in 2023.
Bellbowrie, in the city’s outer southwest, is priced at $1,028,459, a 10.9 per cent jump from $927,709 in 2023.
Despite clocking in the highest annual rise in dwelling values of any capital city, Perth came in a close third with 35 new entrants and one re-entrant to the million-dollar club over the year.
“Perth’s relatively low starting point resulted in fewer new seven-figure markets compared to Sydney and Brisbane,” added Ezzy.
It was a different story down south; however, with Melbourne and regional Victoria’s values actually fell by -1.0% over the year.
Ezzy put this outlier down to an “unfavourable investment taxation environment” and “above average level of advertised supply” putting pressure on property prices, resulting in fewer million-dollar entrants.
The million-dollar question
But can the Aussie market keep this up? Well, it’s complicated.
On the one hand, the housing sector is still massively undersupplied as a whole, seemingly perpetually pushing highly desirable properties up in capital cities while renters and first-home buyers search outwards for more affordable blocks.
With 24 suburbs sitting just below the million-dollar line with a median value of $990,000, Ezzy said that it’s “unlikely” we’ve seen the million-dollar market peak.
“It’s likely we’ll see a number of these markets cross the million-dollar threshold within the next few months,” she said.
However, what is unlikely is for homeowners to see the massive 20 per cent plus gains made in the last few months replicated in 2025, with a recent report by ANZ instead predicting a more moderate increase of 5.5 per cent on average.
“The national housing market is cooling, with auction clearance rates down and the median time on the market increasing,” the report said.
While this stagnation might hurt your property’s immediate resale value, Ezzy did say that this supposed cooling period might actually help mortgage holders dodge a costly bullet.
With an $800,000 loan balance (assuming a 20 per cent deposit) and the current average variable mortgage rate for new owner-occupiers (6.28 per cent), a household would need an annual income close to $200,000 to keep repayments on a $1 million home under 30 per cent of their income.
“Despite the increase in the number of million-dollar markets, borrowers are dedicating more of their income towards servicing their mortgage,” said Ezzy.
