{"id":954855,"date":"2026-07-23T21:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/954855\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:49:22","slug":"sydney-house-prices-falling-in-premium-locations-but-rising-in-historically-affordable-outer-suburbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/954855\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney house prices falling in ‘premium locations’, but rising in historically affordable outer suburbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

First home buyers are “less likely to be affected” by Sydney’s housing price and unit downturn as historically affordable areas have increased, a property expert says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Figures released by real estate company Domain showed a turning point for the city’s house prices<\/a>, which saw the largest drop in the country of 3.3 per cent on the last quarter.<\/p>\n

Domain’s chief residential economist, Nicola Powell, said it was the first quarterly fall in about 3.5 years for house prices, and the first quarterly fall for units.<\/p>\n

“The fall for house prices in particular was quite sharp. It means that about $60,000 was shaved from the median house price in three months,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr Powell said.<\/p>\n

However, she said the downturn had impacted “premium locations” in Sydney’s north and east, not necessarily making it easier for first home buyers.<\/p>\n

“Those areas that are outer suburbs that are much more affordable, these are areas that are actually still rising in price,” she said.<\/p>\n

“At the outer south-west as an example, house prices there are up almost 13 per cent over the past year.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dr Powell says the fall of Sydney’s house prices has been “sharp”, but has not reached the outer areas.<\/p>\n

‘It ripples out’<\/p>\n

The quarterly data shows usually affordable suburbs Penrith and Fairfield have seen a $12,000 increase in unit prices compared to last quarter.<\/p>\n

But, Dr Powell does expect the shift could eventually make it to those traditionally more affordable areas, including Western Sydney.<\/p>\n

“What you tend to find when Sydney moves into a downturn, what moves first and what sees property prices fall first are the premium locations,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Then what happens over time is it ripples out. It ripples to those middle suburbs and often you tend to find those very outer suburbs either don’t see a fall, or if they do see a fall, it’s much more marginal.”<\/p>\n

Andrew Partners Real Estate director Gary Attard, who has worked in and around Fairfield for almost three decades, said uncertainty was changing how buyers approached the market.<\/p>\n

“Buyer confidence is at an all-time low,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“We had a combination of the budget announcement, the tax reforms, and obviously with the cost of living at an all-time high, we are seeing the market affected in a negative way.”<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr Attard says buyer confidence in Fairfield is at “an all-time low”. (ABC News: Abbey Haberecht)<\/p>\n

Mr Attard said there was still demand for units due to affordability, but houses and properties with land were “unfortunately still out of reach for a lot of first home buyers”.<\/p>\n

“We’re seeing first home buyers hesitant to buy, they’re waiting for the bottom-end of the market,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Young first home buyers have got their savings to invest in a property, and that deposit that they initially outlay with falling prices, are scared to lose that.”<\/p>\n

NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson said the change in the market was in its relatively early stages.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want to read too much into it. I still think housing is really expensive in Sydney, so the average house price is still up close to $1.7 million,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

“When you talk, as I do to people who are on the social housing waiting list, who are looking for affordable housing, they still see house prices as a huge issue.”<\/p>\n

Investors ‘sitting on their hands’<\/p>\n

Dr Powell said a convergence of factors, including three rate hikes this year, had caused the slowdown in one of Australia’s most exposed markets.<\/p>\n

“We’ve also got … weak consumer confidence, and when you do see consumer confidence low, it does slow down transactions across the housing market,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It [Sydney] has a higher proportion of investor activity compared to other state and territories and I think what we’ve got at the moment is the sentiment has changed dramatically.”<\/p>\n

Mr Attard said the investment market in Fairfield had come to a “complete stop”.<\/p>\n

“Investment is not on the radar. Property investors are sitting on their hands,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“They’re scared to make a move at the moment because of so much uncertainty.”<\/p>\n

Dr Powell said the cash rate had hit its peak, but warned any rate reductions were a “far distance away”.<\/p>\n

“It’s important to remember that this is the normal dynamics of a property price cycle,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have gone through a period of strong growth and you then tend to find a period of weaker growth.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First home buyers are “less likely to be affected” by Sydney’s housing price and unit downturn as historically…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":954856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[852,64,106141,79,271184,384137,243591,4209,384139,69496,384133,17364,384136,196570,384135,13932,384134,445,384131,384130,384132,209863,67,132,68,5330,384138,384140],"class_list":["post-954855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-affordable-housing","tag-business","tag-domain","tag-economy","tag-fairfield","tag-first-home-buyers-sydney","tag-first-home-buyers","tag-investments","tag-is-it-a-good-time-to-buy-in-sydney","tag-market-uncertainty","tag-nicola-powell","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-housing-minister-rose-jackson","tag-penrith","tag-premier-locations","tag-property-prices","tag-rate-rises","tag-rates","tag-sydney-house-prices","tag-sydney-house-prices-fall","tag-sydney-house-prices-falling","tag-sydney-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-western-sydney","tag-what-does-the-housing-market-look-like-in-sydney","tag-why-are-house-prices-falling-in-some-areas-but-not-others"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}