Every home owner in the Kiama LGA who sold their property in the first few months of 2023 made a gross profit, pocketing a median gain of nearly half a million dollars.
However, the median gross profit in the area has dropped by more than $300,000 from a year earlier.
More than 97 per cent of Illawarra home owners who re-sold their home during the March quarter made a gross profit doing so, CoreLogic figures have revealed.
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On average, Illawarra owners who sold had held on to their home for 8.8 years, and made a median profit of $400,000.
Meanwhile, in the Kiama LGA, 100 per cent of all re-sales in the March 2023 quarter turned a gross profit.
Owners held on to their homes for a median period of eight years and made an average profit of $495,000, with the combined value of profits totalling $31,105,923.
A year prior, 96.9 per cent of Kiama re-sales earned a gross profit, and the median gross profit in Kiama has dropped from $857,500 in the March 2022 quarter. Profits in this quarter totalled $54,275,918.
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CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said the reduction in profitability in Kiama would be a combination of lower home values - Kiama dwelling values declined about 15 per cent between a peak in April 2022 and March 2023 - but perhaps also a change in the composition of properties bought and sold in the quarter.
"Given the decline in value, it is perhaps surprising to see that no sales made a nominal loss," she said.
"But the high rate of profit-making sales across the region comes off the back of a recent, strong uplift in home values, where Kiama dwelling values were 32.9 per cent higher from the onset of the pandemic through to the end of March.
"Mortgage serviceability may pose less of an issue across Kiama than in other parts of the country where shorter-term re-selling is on the rise.
"Incomes across the LGA are slightly higher than in neighbouring Shellharbour and Wollongong, and as a popular market with wealthy sea-changers and retirees, the portion of mortgaged, owner-occupied households in the region is also slightly lower than in neighbouring LGA regions and Australia more broadly.
"Around 30.4 per cent of Kiama dwellings were recorded as owned with a mortgage as of the August 2021 Census."
There were some properties in the Kiama LGA that sold in early 2023 for significant gains.
In February, the home at 78 Stafford Street, Gerroa sold for an undisclosed figure.
At the time, selling agent, Hayley Sneddon from Home & Hearth Property said she couldn't reveal the exact sale price, but confirmed it sold in the "very high $6 million" range. CoreLogic records don't reveal the final sale price.
The property previously sold in 2018 for $2,700,000, before the owners undertook a knockdown-rebuild.
Also, the home at 135 Fern Street, Gerringong sold in February for $2,825,000.
According to CoreLogic, it previously sold in 2016 for $965,000.
'The Fern', a mixed use, multi-tenanted property includes a popular Airbnb component, and had been renovated.
There have also been sales in the area resulting in far smaller gains more recently.
For example, 23A Cedar Ridge Road, Kiama sold in June for $1,700,000, after previously transacting in January 2022 for $1,625,000.
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