Newcastle and Lake Macquarie dwelling values hit record high

The median price of all houses and apartments sold in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie last month jumped two per cent from $665,033 in March to $675,599 in April.

The Newcastle Herald reported in December last year that Newcastle property prices had crashed through $600,000 for the first time.

The latest figures from property analysts CoreLogic show dwelling values in the region are up 7.8 per cent in the past three months and 16.1 per cent in the past year.

Since the start of the year, the Herald has reported on new suburb high sales coming in several suburbs across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, including the $2.725 million auction result of a six-bedroom home at 17 Bentley Street in Redhead in March. It was marketed by Altitude Real Estate Warners Bay with a guide of $1.9 million. The sale eclipsed the previous highest residential result for Redhead of $2.438 million set in September last year.

Eliza Owen, head of research for Australia at CoreLogic, told the Herald the growth in the Newcastle market in the past quarter had been "extraordinary".

"If we go back over the past 10 years say, a typical quarterly growth rate for the Newcastle-Lake Macquarie region would be 1.3 per cent," Ms Owen said.

CoreLogic data revealed median house values were up 8.7 per cent in the three months to April to around $700,000 and apartment values were up by around 3.5 per cent to around $550,000.

"In a lot of regions in Australia, values at the combined national level basically hit a record high through February, and values have just edged higher and higher since and are continually hitting that record high," Ms Owen said.

"The consensus from the big banks is that property values are set to rise 15 per cent over the calendar year; that's across Australia. For regional NSW, it could be bit more, just given that stocks levels remain very, very tight and I think the pursuit of regional property is likely to continue over the year as well."

Australian housing values lifted by 1.8 per cent in April, according to CoreLogic's national home value index, with the monthly pace of capital gains easing from a 32-year high in March (2.8 per cent). Although growth conditions have slowed, housing values are still rising at a rapid pace, up 6.8 per cent over the past three months to be 10.2 per cent higher than the COVID-19 low in September last year.

Of the 88 regional submarkets across Australia that are measured by CoreLogic, Ms Owen said Newcastle and Lake Macquarie had the 16^th highest quarterly growth rate in the three months to April.

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