‘No one wants to sell’: Top Australian suburbs no one wants to leave revealed

People love living in the Sydney north shore suburb of Castle Cove, so much so that it’s taken out the title of the longest-held suburb in Australia.

In exclusive data released to ACM and View.com.au, the suburb came out as having the longest median hold of properties sold of 23.7 years.

That put it a full year ahead of its nearest competitor, the Melbourne suburb of St Helena, where residents held onto their property for 22.7 years before selling, according to CoreLogic.

Di Jones Real Estate agent Mark Kapterian, who is a long-standing real estate in the areas said the suburb is a hidden gem that residents rarely want to leave.

“I joke that it is a real estate agent’s graveyard as no one wants to sell,” Mr Kapterian said.

The upside is that plenty want to get into the suburb and he said he can see why.

“Castle Cove is a hidden gem,” said Mr Kapterian.

“It is probably not as well known as suburbs just next door and people stumble across it.

“But once they see they are getting larger homes on bigger blocks of land and many of them with water views then they don’t want to leave.”

That hold period of nearly 24 years for Castle Cove, puts it way above the eight to nine years that is the hold period for homes nationally.

In Sydney houses are typically held for just under 10 years, at 9.66 years and Melbourne as a whole sees houses being held for 9.5 years according to CoreLogic data.

Why stay so long

According to Eliza Owen, head of residential research at CoreLogic, suburbs that top the list for longest held suburbs across the country have one of three characteristics.

“The first is areas that were popular with young families back in the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s and because they were heavily suburban areas like Cherrybrook in Sydney, for example, the time periods are reflective of that family being raised and staying in the suburb for a long time.

“Now those suburbs probably look more like either older family households or empty nester households.”

Higher priced suburbs are also well represented as places where people are not selling for a long period.

“These really affluent areas tend to be more exclusive,” she said.

“There are not as many people that can buy into them and there’s certainly not a lot of people who want to give up that prime location and lifestyle either.”

Living the dream

Amanda McCubbine, who moved to Castle Cove with her family eight years ago, understands why people are reluctant to sell up in the suburb.

“Castle Cove exists in this bubble, you don’t really know it exists. Then when we discovered it, it was amazing,” she said.

She said the amount of nature and wildlife in the suburb, along with its community feel and large suburban homes made it an attractive place to live.

“It has three to five bedroom homes, there are lots of families and it is the domestic bliss that everyone aspires to.”

After nearly a decade the family is now selling their home in the suburb, with the five-bedroom home listed with a price guide of $3 million to $3.3 million.

It is not only the more expensive areas that are the longest held, with suburbs that have become more gentrified over time attracting long-term owners.

“So they might not be the most affluent areas, but they’ve developed value and desirability because they have a community that really sticks to their area,” Ms Owen said.

“So that might be a high migrant area, for example, like Wakeley in Sydney, where people come to Australia, they find that community, there’s not as much incentive for them to leave it.”

Price rises over time

Holding property over the long term pays off for homeowners too.

The Melbourne suburb of St Helena, which had the city’s longest median hold period of just under 23 years, has seen house price jumps of 164 per cent over the last 20 years.

Meanwhile St Kilda West, which also made the top 20 of the longest-held suburbs in the Victorian capital, has also seen big rises over time.

St Kilda West currently has a median house price of $2.408 million and has people holding onto their houses for 16.6 years before selling.

In the past 15 years house prices rose by 103.7 per cent.

Likewise Ms Owen said many Perth suburbs on the list, may have seen longer hold periods as people held onto properties until prices picked up, as they have recently in the city.

This article was first published at view.com.au.