Macquarie Park Property Market Update 1st Half of 2022

In Q4 2021, Macquarie Park (which throughout this report includes Macquarie Park, North Ryde, Epping, West Ryde, and Eastwood) recorded a median house price of $2,460,000, and a median unit price of $791,000. This represents annual (Q4 2020 – Q4 2021) median price growth of 40.6% for houses and 2.7% for units. Unit prices reached a peak in Q2 2021, before returning in Q4 2021 to price levels seen 12 months ago. Total sales in both markets remained largely unchanged from Q4 2020 to Q4 2021, up by 4.0% for houses (to 184 sales) and down by -2.9% for units (to 301 sales).

Average vendor discounts between Q4 2020 and Q4 2021 have further travelled towards a higher premium, of 10.2% for houses, and tightened to -0.3% for units. House market conditions in Macquarie Park have heavily swung to favour sellers, where buyers must pay large premiums above initial listing prices. Unit buyers can still benefit from a discount; however, time is limited.

In December 2021, house rental yields in Macquarie Park (2113) were recorded at 3.0%. In the 12 months to Q4 2021, the median house rental price increased by 18.6% to $700 per week, while average days on the market declined by -11.1% (to 24 days). In a market dominated by units, the house rental market has performed strongly, due to a high level of demand even throughout COVID-19 lockdowns.

2 bedroom houses have provided investors with +4.2% rental growth annually, with a median rent of $470 per week.

Also in December 2021, Macquarie Park recorded a vacancy rate of 6.0%, above that of Ryde LGA (3.4%) and Sydney Metro (2.6%). Vacancy rates in Macquarie Park also sit above the Real Estate Institute of Australia’s healthy benchmark of 3.0%, though the market has been recovering since its peak in January 2020. This downward trend highlights the future potential of Macquarie Park, whilst also prompting investors to hold tenants to longer-term leases for security of cashflow.