The idyllic beach town near Sydney where house values rose 45 per cent
Buyers on the hunt for affordable housing still within a commutable distance are helping to push up prices for both units and houses.
Central Coast house values are nearly at a pandemic-era high, as buyers look for affordable housing and a relaxed beach lifestyle within a commutable distance to Sydney.
The house market in the Central Coast is up 45.1 per cent over five years to reach a median price of $1,063,372, Cotality data to the end of November shows.
Sunrise at Umina Beach on the Central Coast. House values in the region are nearly at a pandemic-era high,Credit: Istock
The cost to buy the median house on the Central Coast is now inching closer to its April 2022 record of $1,067,901, after jumping 6.1 per cent over the past year.
“The big boom in housing values across the Central Coast, like with most major regional centres, happened between early 2020 and many markets found a high in early 2022 just before interest rates started rising,” Cotality head of Australian research Eliza Owen said.
“Then there was a short, sharp decline in property values between early 2022 and early 2023 and values have been gradually recovering since.”
The Central Coast unit market also jumped in the past five years, to hit a record $738,432. Over that time, the cost to buy a median unit rose 38.7 per cent and in the past year, unit prices have ticked up 5.7 per cent.
Belle Property Central Coast owner Catherine Baker observed the market stabilise after pandemic-era highs, and lows, when interest rates were higher.
“We’ve gone right back to the more traditional real estate market,” she said.
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The Reserve Bank’s February 2025 cut to the cash rate was its first since November 2020. It made two more through 2025. This, alongside low supply and government first-home buyer incentives helped boost competition and prices.
The acceleration and normalisation of remote work early in the pandemic helped push up prices in many “relatively affordable areas”, Owen said. Historically, movers to the Central Coast were downsizers.
“But nowadays, a lot of younger people don’t have a choice. If they want to buy a family home, they need to start looking outside of Sydney,” she said.
“So the Central Coast, Newcastle, and even as far as the Hunter has become a lot more normalised for young families to look at as options.”
