Biggest sales in 2019 Newcastle property market

Fletcher joined the million-dollar club with three properties breaking seven figures by year's end and experts have predicted Cameron Park will soon follow suit after the Lake Macquarie suburb's ceiling also rose.

Warners Bay, Kotara and Adamstown Heights broke the $2 million mark.

There were suburb records set for Bar Beach, Merewether, Adamstown, Adamstown Heights, Kotara, Maryville, Warners Bay, Fletcher, Cameron Park and Carey Bay, which the Newcastle Herald believes was the biggest sale in history on Lake Macquarie.

Two sales over $5.5 million for luxury residences in exclusive pockets of Bar Beach and Merewether bookended the year and were the highest for Newcastle since Jesmond House in The Hill's Barker Street sold for $7 million in 2008. The first came in February when Robinson Property's Mike Flook sold 40 Kilgour Avenue for $5.51 million within one week of marketing.

It looked unlikely to be eclipsed before Street Property's Damon Sellis sold 16 Bar Beach Avenue overlooking Empire Park in Bar Beach for $5.525 million in October.

The only other sale to surpass those since Jesmond House's exchange was in 2017 when $6 million was paid for a super penthouse sold off the plan for the entire top floor of Washington House in Iris Capital's East End development.

Mr Sellis observed "a dramatic change in the Newcastle property market" over the past 12 months.

He said after "one of the toughest markets we've seen in some time" there was stabilisation post Federal election and as the end of 2019 approached buyer confidence had returned.

"The auction clearance rate has increased and we're sitting around 80 per cent now," Mr Sellis told the Newcastle Herald. "We've gone from one to three registered bidders to an average of five, so confidence is back.

"People were still waiting to see what the bottom of the market was going to be but I think people have now made their own assessment that the bottom of the market has come and in all price brackets we're seeing demand again.

"What I noticed in particularly with Bar Beach Avenue is there is still a lack of high-quality stock in certain streets, in certain suburbs and locations that we're still seeing strong demand for."

Jesse Wilton, of PRDnationwide Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, believed it has been the "best year for the prestige market" in Newcastle he has seen.

"Days on market in the prestige end for us came down to around 30 days whereas previous markets it's been around 50 to 60 and there has been a number of elite sales come through compared to other years," Mr Wilton said. "The Newcastle inner city market has so much quality now that properties have forced their way into that [elite] price bracket."

Mr Wilton and Mark Kentwell marketed arguably Newcastle's most talked about property this year in the "Black House" at 21 Flowerdale Avenue in Merewether. The Black House, as it became known for its charred timber cladding exterior, combined Japanese architecture, inspired by burnt pieces of wood found on the property, with a minimalist approach. It passed in at auction but was secured on October 1 for $2.18 million and by far the biggest price paid for a home in its location.

In March, a tri-level absolute waterfront property at 27 Excelsior Parade in Carey Bay sold for $3.75 million. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home had a glass-door elevator, wet bar, theatre room opening to a private terrace and a fully tiled in-ground swimming pool with heated spa. It also had a boat shed, slipway and shared jetty and its sale is believed to be the highest on record for Lake Macquarie.

Also in March, $2.15 million was paid at auction for 3 Ragan Street in Adamstown Heights. Around 200 groups had inspected the five-bedroom home, complete with a swimming pool and set on over 1200 square metres of land. The previous highest sale for the suburb was $1.76 million, according to Australian Property Monitors data.

Fletcher broke the million-dollar mark in June with the $1.01 million sale of 26 Tallowwood Crescent. That was eclipsed by two higher sales in November, including the suburb's new top mark of $1.21 million for a two-storey residence with five bedrooms, four living spaces and a pool at 84 Churnwood Drive.

In July, a suburb high of $1.6 million was recorded for Maryville with the exchange of 84 Estell Street.

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The $2.175 million off-market sale in September of a 5685 square metre property featuring a four-bedroom home, covered swimming pool and tennis court at 203 Grinsell Street set a new sale high for Kotara.

In November, Warners Bay broke the $2 million mark as well with the $2.15 million sale of 540 The Esplanade opposite Lake Macquarie. In the same month, Mr Wilton said the $3.81 million sale of a grand 1880s residence overlooking King Edward Park at 30 The Terrace on The Hill showed how quickly the city's real estate market had recovered from a downturn. The property had sold for $3.825 million 18 months earlier.

Cameron Park's suburb ceiling rose this month with the $933,000 sale of a four-bedroom home at 4 Macon Way. Belle Property's Sam Taylor marketed the property and predicted "it is only a matter of time" before the suburb reached the $1 million mark.

In Port Stephens, two of the highest sale prices for Salamander Bay were recorded. Both were waterfront residences on Soldiers Point Road. The first came in March when No.203 sold at auction for $3.5 million then $3.4 million was paid for No.171 this month after just one week on the market. According to APM data, the highest sale for Salamander Bay is $3.6 million, paid in February last year.

According to Domain economist Trent Wiltshire, if Newcastle had not reached the bottom of the market it would come in 2020.

Domain's September quarter property report showed house prices in Newcastle fell 4.8 per cent year-on-year and 1.5 per cent quarter on quarter but had risen nearly 30 per cent in a five-year period. The next report will be released in January.

"The market has been soft for the past year or so, so in Newcastle house prices actually peaked in June 2018 and are now six per cent below what they were back then," Mr Wiltshire said. "The story is the Newcastle market has really followed what has happened in Sydney but with a lag of about a year. In Sydney, house prices peaked in June 2017 whereas in Newcastle they peaked in June 2018. It was the same story with units.

"It's still soft in the Newcastle market but Sydney turned around quite dramatically in the past few months and, based on what has happened in the past, I'd say there's a good chance we'll start to see Newcastle bottom out in 2020. But you can see over five years, houses are still up nearly 30 per cent even after this bit of a correction."

While the median house price in Newcastle dropped from $620,000 in September 2018 to $590,000 in September of this year and Lake Macquarie's median house price dropped $10,000 in the same time, according to Domain's report, Cessnock, Maitland and the Upper Hunter all experienced growth.

"A general trend is probably that the same effect as Sydney to Newcastle is Newcastle to the outer areas of the Newcastle-Hunter region." Mr Wiltshire said.

"Affordability pushes people from Sydney to Newcastle then out of Newcastle to the surrounding areas."