Bellevue Hill, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, has been named the most expensive suburb in Australia for houses in 2024.

While the median price for a house is just under $10 million, wealthy homeowners have seen prices drop by 8 per cent.

Likewise, according to CoreLogic, one of Melbourne’s most exclusive suburbs has also seen a drop in prices.

Yes, you can still expect to pay a median price of more than $3 million.

But that again is down for the year, with house prices dropping by 3.3 per cent in the bayside suburb.

“Broadly speaking, the top end of the market has underperformed over the past 12 months,” CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said.

“You also see a decline in value when you have a decline in activity.”

“It’s not that people are leaving the market; it’s just they are not buying into them, and so you see the effect of seeing values decline.”

Prices pulled back

Leading prestige property agent Michael Pallier of Sydney Sothebys, who sells across the city’s eastern suburbs said the market had pulled back from last year.

“Prices have gone down by between 5 and 10 per cent on last year,” Pallier said.

“Last year, the market was almost overshot and too expensive, but it’s reached a healthy consistency now.”

He said that while many believed that super-wealthy buyers were immune to interest rate rises, this was not the case.

“It does affect them as they have businesses; they may be developers, and they have debt,” he said.

However, as summer approaches, he is already showing many expats returning for Christmas and foreign buyers through prestige homes.

“The way the Australian dollar is at the moment is good for property,” he said.

The agency currently has a glamorous three-bedroom home on the market.

This top-end three-bedroom home in Bellevue Hill is currently on the market through Sothebys. Photo: View.com.au

On the rise

Meanwhile, property prices in the most expensive suburbs in Perth, Brisbane and the Gold Coast are rising.

“Peppermint Grove, the most expensive suburb in Perth and Western Australia, has seen the median house price go up 22.3 per cent in value over the past year,” Ezzy said.

She said a similar picture emerged in Queensland in both Brisbane and the Gold Coast for both houses and apartments.

On Broadbeach Waters on the Gold Coast, house prices rose by 11 per cent over 2024.

When it comes to apartment prices in the luxury end of the market, prices were again down across all five of Melbourne’s top five most expensive suburbs, from Brighton to Ashburton.

The most significant price drop happened in Balwyn North, where the median unit price dropped by more than 10 per cent (-10.1 per cent) to bring the median price to $1.15 million.

In Sydney, the harbourside suburb of Darling Point, which was identified as one of the top five most expensive suburbs for apartments, has also seen prices drop.

There has been a drop of 8.6 per cent in 2024, bringing the median apartment price to a hefty $2.512 million.

Next year’s outlook

For 2025, it looks like more challenging times could be on the cards.

“We are seeing that declining trend that has been spreading through Victoria now hitting parts of Sydney,” Ezzy said.

“We could see that easing in prices in markets with strong price growth.”

Things could change only in the second half of next year after a predicted interest rate cut.

“That would help stimulate housing demand, which would maybe stave off further price declines or even tip it off into a positive.”

This article first appeared on View.com.au. Read the original here