Australia’s most exclusive suburbs: The 7 hardest places to buy a home

Your home might be your castle, but in a handful of suburbs across Australia, it’s also a fortress, impervious to the slings and arrows of fluctuating interest rates, consumer confidence and affordability constraints.

They might not be protected by a moat or battlements, but instead these modern fortress areas are buttressed by great views, harbourside or peninsula locations, or proximity to heritage villages or luxury retail.

So while home buyers wanting to purchase in other pricey suburbs can be persuaded to go to neighbouring “bridesmaid” areas to buy a cheaper house or apartment, they won’t be swayed from the “fortresses”, which is often code for “Australia’s most expensive suburbs“.

What are fortress suburbs?

A fortress suburb is one where buyers refuse to compromise on location, regardless of affordability, interest rates or nearby cheaper options.

“People want to be in these suburbs, no matter what the cost is,” says Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee. “Normally, they’ll agree to go to nearby areas and then prices in those areas rise.

“But with the fortress suburbs, the locations with truly irreplaceable geographical or social characteristics, buyers prioritise these over price and won’t consider going anywhere else.”

The 7 fortress suburbs in Australia

Research by Conisbee, analysing data across 1339 suburbs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Darwin, identified just seven fortress suburbs where buyers dig in their heels:

1. Sydney: Bellevue Hill, Mosman, Double Bay, Dover Heights, Woollahra
2. Melbourne: Toorak
3. Adelaide: North Adelaide

Toorak, for instance, has a 45 per cent price differential with nearby South Yarra. Double Bay has a 43 per cent premium over Potts Point, North Adelaide 39 per cent over Prospect, Bellevue Hill 35 per cent over Woollahra, Mosman 29 per cent over Neutral Bay, and Woollahra 25 per cent over Paddington.

The premium is striking. While neighbouring suburbs may look appealing on paper, especially if they’re more expensive, fortress buyers remain unmoved.

“We find buyers are very specific about the areas they want to buy in,” says Alain Waitsman, principal of Belle Property Double Bay. “Bellevue Hill is one of the most attractive suburbs in Australia, and if people make up their minds to buy there, then that’s what they’ll do.

“It’s the same with Woollahra. It has a great village with great cafes and restaurants, and people want to live there, and won’t go anywhere else.”

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Level 3/20-26 Cross Street, Double Bay NSW 2028

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5 Wallaroy Crescent, Woollahra NSW 2025

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Elliott Placks, principal of Ray White Double Bay, says he also regularly comes across buyers who are very definite about where they want to go, and aren’t interested in looking at alternatives.

“It can be very hard to sway them,” he says. “People always want to be part of a community, so they might want to be in a suburb that friends or family have moved to.

“Then there are other suburbs’ views they might be looking for, or the cachet of somewhere like Point Piper or Vaucluse or Bellevue Hill, or those areas that aren’t being rezoned. They can be very aspirational areas, and people want to be there to feel they’ve made it.”

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19A Coolong Road, Vaucluse NSW 2030

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Guide $1,050,000

16/97-99 Cabramatta Road, Mosman NSW 2088

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Blue-chip Mosman is another fortress that people often won’t consider leaving.

A bonus is that Mosman Council gives parking permits for Balmoral Beach, says BresicWhitney Lower North Shore agent Nicholas Christou, whereas if you buy in Cremorne or Neutral Bay, North Sydney Council doesn’t.

“Mosman is just a very well-known, blue-chip suburb,” Christou says. “Its appeal is very much about lifestyle, and it has a number of waterfront addresses. People really want to live there and will pay a premium to do so.”

In Melbourne, Toorak buyers are just as stubborn.

$1,050,000 - $1,150,000

32/50 Ross Street, Toorak VIC 3142

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SOLD - Price Withheld

2/24 Hill Street, Toorak VIC 3142

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“They really want Toorak and nowhere else,” says Jack Martin of Marshall White. “I feel like it’s such a peaceful place, removed from all the noise of South Yarra and Chapel Street.

“It’s just so tranquil with beautiful topography and architecture, and the village is being overhauled to an even higher level.”

Conisbee says generally home buyers are willing to make a trade-off for an affordable home, but not with those fortress suburbs. “Those people will do whatever they have to in order to live there,” she says. “They don’t want to consider alternatives.”