The gap between apartments & houses is growing.. Get in before it is too late

The 2021 property boom saw prices rise at an unprecedented rate around the country.

Yet it was house prices that stole the show, soaring 25.5% to a new national median of $1,066,133 while units a more modest 7.7% to a national $621,880 median, according to recent Domain data.

While prices rose across the board, the surge in house prices relative to unit price increases means the cost between the two has never been so wide apart. And this is troubling news for unit-owners who are looking to upgrade their home or investment to a house.

Upgrading has become particularly difficult in the capital cities, where the price gap between units and houses has completely blown out since the pandemic hit. And this is unsurprising given the pandemic made people re-evaluate what they want in a home.

Repeated lockdowns and the shift to working from home saw buyers flock to properties that offered more space, making house prices surge and leaving demand for units behind in the dust. The Domain data shows that this is most evident in Sydney, where the median price difference between a unit and house leapt to $799,000 in the final quarter of 2021, up from $400,000 just 2 years earlier.

Unit vs house prices: NSW

In NSW, Forster in regional NSW has a median price gap of just $15,000, or 2.30%, making it the easiest suburb in the state for owners to upgrade their unit to a house.

And the list doesn’t only comprise suburbs outside of the city.

Riverstone in Sydney’s west is 3rd on the list with an $85,010 gap between the two types of dwellings, representing just 10.60%.

Source: Suburbs with the smallest price gap between houses and apartments (propertyupdate.com.au)