Byron Shire house prices plummet

House prices have plunged further in Byron Bay over the past year than in any other regional town or suburb in NSW, according to data from Core Logic.

The company’s annual Best of the Best report shows that prices fell 20.5 per cent in the town during 2022, as a combination of floods and rising interest rates hit the town hard.

The Shire’s other large population centres were not far behind, according to the data.

Suffolk Park was second on the list of regional towns that recorded the biggest fall in values, at -18.5 per cent, with Mullumbimby coming in fourth (-18.2 per cent), Bangalow in fifth (-16.6 per cent) and Ocean Shores in seventh (-15.7 per cent).

‘The COVID-induced boom for Australia’s regional housing market has burst, with several regional markets that had the strongest value growth through the upswing now among the fastest declining markets,’ CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen, told the Australian Financial Review (Nine) last week.

‘Unlike the capital city markets, regional housing markets have suffered ongoing extreme weather events, which have compounded the impact of rising rates on housing demands.’

However, dramatic the falls may have been, they are far from undoing the dramatic upsurge in prices that occurred during the early years of COVID-19.

During 2020, Byron Shire house prices leapt by 56.5 per cent.

Byron Bay remains high on the list of most expensive suburbs in regional NSW at number three, with a median house price of $2.30m.

Ewingsdale has now moved to the top of that list with a median price of $2.97m, though that figure is based on just 18 sales during the calendar year.

The biggest price drops in the country occurred in Sydney, with Narrabeen recording a 26.8 per cent decline, followed by Surry Hills (-25.4 per cent) and Redfern (-25.3).