‘We never really needed to move’: Sydney suburbs where home owners stick around

When Meredith Bernays and her husband Shane Doyle bought their home in Wareemba, the main appeal was the price. They didn’t expect to end up living there for over three decades.

Bernays, 66, a former nurse and family day care worker, said they had been house hunting all over Sydney and were getting tired of the search.

“It was the last house on the day. I was well and truly over it. But Meredith said ‘why don’t we look at this last one?’” said Doyle, 62, who works for a consulting engineering firm.

That final house ended up being a semi in Wareemba, a small inner west suburb hidden between Five Dock and Abbotsford. They purchased it in 1994, extensively renovated and raised their daughter there.

The couple is not alone in staying put for so long. Wareemba is one of Sydney’s most long-held suburbs, Cotality research shows. Home sellers there have hung onto their properties for a median 27 years.

When the couple bought, Bernays said there wasn’t a thought about it being a long-term home, rather the property was “in the budget at the time”, but she said it “had a good feeling”.

Part of what has kept the family in Wareemba is its proximity to the city and various modes of transport, parks, schools and being close to the shops and other amenities.

“We’ve always just been happy here. We never really needed to move,” Bernays said.

It’s only now that the couple’s daughter has moved away that they have put the house on the market. Even so, they are planning to split their time between Sydney and the South Coast and are on the hunt for a city bolthole.

Wareemba, one of the city’s smallest suburbs, was third only to Bringelly, in the south-west, at 28.1 years, and Northwood in the Lane Cove area at 27.3 years, on Cotality data on median hold periods for houses sold in the 12 months to June.

Sydney overall has a median hold period of 10.3 years.

Gerard Burg, Cotality’s head of research, said with a few exceptions, it tended to be the “much higher valued” suburbs that were tightly held, particularly those with amenities and closer to the city.

“As the city has expanded, the appeal of those inner ring suburbs has risen from that … the transport advantages and the higher level of amenities, versus more affordable homes on the fringes,” he said.

“That potentially does increase the hold period … once you’re in, you don’t want to leave the area because you enjoy the advantages that it has.”

According to 2021 Census data, 40.5 per cent of homes in Wareemba were owned outright, compared to 31.5 per cent statewide, while 27.9 per cent of homes in the suburb were rented.

Mark McCrindle, a demographer from McCrindle, said Sydney’s long-held areas tended to be those that had great natural and built amenity, and a sense of community in areas that were largely owner-occupied. But there were also financial and emotional reasons prompting people to stay longer.

“The location becomes part of their identity. They’re an inner west person or a harbourside person,” he said, adding people may not move “because the stamp duty on the value of the place or agent commissions, if they sell, are such that they think it’s going to be so expensive through the transaction.”

This has been the case for Doyle and Bernays.

“We couldn’t see the point in moving because the house suits us, the area suits us and why pack up and move?” said Doyle, who noted the costs associated with selling and buying had not been attractive previously.

Antonio Ariola, a director at Belle Property in Five Dock and the couple’s selling agent, has covered the area for over 20 years and said the “very small” suburb was tightly held, with comparatively few apartments and easy access to amenities like transport and cafes.

“It’s sort of a village atmosphere … It’s very convenient,” he said. “People come in, and they like the area, and they plant their feet,” he said.

Ella Elias, director of Ella Elias Property Group, which covers parts of the lower north shore, including Northwood – another that made Cotality’s list – said properties don’t stay on the market long there, and sellers are often downsizers.

“It is a very tightly held pocket,” Elias said of the waterfront enclave.

Much like Wareemba, it’s small and a bit of a secret.

“I think the benefits and the reason why people love Northwood is that a lot of people don’t know about Northwood. It’s actually a little hidden suburb,” Elias said.

Burg said cost-of-living pressures and softer property could encourage more people to stay put, particularly in higher-value areas where the buy-in costs were expensive.

“In an environment where home values are now declining,” he said, “if anything, it probably provides a greater initiative to hang on for longer.”