AN exclusive “inner west” enclave similar to Sydney is opening up in Newcastle, with new land value data revealing the city’s traditionally working class suburbs are now among the most desirable to live.
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Figures released by the NSW Valuer General on Friday show Newcastle’s residential land values surged 13 per cent in 2016, with newly trendy suburbs like Carrington, Maryville, Islington and Wickham driving much of the growth.
While the Hunter’s total residential land value passed $100 billion for the first time on the back of 10 per cent growth, it was Newcastle’s inner city, where property prices have begun to skyrocket, that the most startling growth occurred.
Bourke Street in Carrington saw one of the region’s biggest jumps, with its land values rising by 35 per cent to $362,000. On the other side of Hannell Street the numbers were just as gaudy, with Albert Street in Wickham also soaring 35 per cent to $433,000.
It’s a trend that property watchers say is no surprise.
As the city centre sees its own investment boom – residential land values Hunter and King Streets rose by 25 and 26 per cent respectively – an already booming property market is combining with Sydney’s increasing unaffordability to push Newcastle’s inner suburbs to new heights.
“Anywhere in the inner city is much the same as Sydney now, those inner suburbs that are slightly on the fringe have taken right off, and it’s really just a flow on from what we’ve had in the CBD,” Bob Dupont from Preston Rowe Paterson property consulting said.
“I think the old view of those suburbs like Mayfield or Carrington is changing.
"Where 10 or 20 years ago you still had BHP and its left overs, as the suburbs become more gentrified and those industrial influences go further and further away they’re all starting to change.
“People from Sydney come up here to Wickham and see that it’s close to the beach and town and has an inner west feeling about it, and a home costs $650,000 where they’d be paying $3 million in Annandale or somewhere like that.”
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the valuer general’s figures were “good news for landowners”, and welcomed the increased development activity in the city.
“Newcastle has been on steady increase for a number of years which is good thing,” she said.
“The city is planned around a series of small village areas that have their own local amenities all around the CBD area [and] those suburbs like Maryville really are our inner west.”
But it’s not just the inner city suburbs that are soaring. Further out, suburbs like Lambton saw 20-plus per cent growth. In Wallsend, Newcastle Road grew by 22 per cent.
While the valuer general’s report is not based on the value of homes or improvements to land, property sales are the biggest factor.
It’s also one of the factors councils use to calculate rates, and while that growth will mean rate rises for home owners, Cr Nelmes said any further bumps above CPI were “not on the agenda at all”.
Lake Macquarie also saw land values rise by 9 per cent to a total residential land value of $22 billion. In Port Stephens values rose by 10.5 per cent to $6 billion and in Maitland they rose 4 per cent to $5 billion.
Kahibah, where Felicity Rose and her partner Stuart have owned a home since 2011, saw price rises of 14.5 per cent in some streets. The couple purchased their home for $509,000 and had it valued in 2016 for $630,000.
Ms Rose also owns an apartment in Adamstown that she bought in 2013 for $300,000 after working three jobs at once.
Three years later the property is now valued at about $350,000.
“While I was building up the deposit it was like every month prices were increasing so yeah you do feel a bit of pressure to buy ASAP,” she said.
“A year later I wouldn’t have been able to afford the Adamstown place so I feel really lucky to have bought at that time.”
But it wasn’t all about growth in the Hunter.
The downturn in the coal industry continues to bite the upper regions of the valley, with Muswellbrook – 10 per cent – Singleton – 8 per cent – and Upper Hunter – 14.5 per cent – all seeing big decreases in property values.
“Further up the Hunter Valley in the coal fields areas the market has been much weaker, there’s been some weakening of the coal industry and that’s been reflected in the value of properties in those towns,” NSW Valuer General Simon Gilkes said.
