MELBOURNE, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of million-dollar suburbs in Melbourne has quadrupled in the past five years, a study released on Friday has found.
The data, released by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) on Friday, revealed that there were more than 120 suburbs in Melbourne with a median house price higher than one million Australian dollars (743,000 U.S. dollars) in the first three months of 2017 compared to just 30 suburbs in 2012.
Joseph Walton, president of the REIV, said that the spike was due to buyers moving to middle-ring suburbs after being priced out of the inner-city market.
"The premium end of the market had traditionally been confined to the inner suburbs, however there's been a bridesmaid effect that's driving growth into the middle suburbs," Walton told Australian media on Friday.
Australia's three largest cities; Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have found themselves cast into a housing crisis as the value of real estate has soared.
CoreLogic, a property analysis firm, said on Thursday that they believed house prices would normalize in mid-2017 but Walton said he believes prices in Melbourne would continue to soar.
"In terms of where Melbourne is going, the market is strong. There's been no substantive data that indicates there's going to be downfall," Walton said.
"The key growth drivers to Melbourne real estate are population growth, which continues to be particularly strong, migration into Melbourne is amongst the strongest in the country, a low-interest rate environment and low supply to the market place and very, very strong demand.
"So I think all of those things are going to drive the market in a positive direction."
The REIV figures also indicated that 20 percent of suburbs within 10 kilometers of the Central Business District (CBD) had a median house price of more than 1.4 million U.S. dollars (two million Australian dollars).
Walton said that prospective buyers needed to be patient in order to find their ideal home within their price range.
