Australia’s premium housing markets have had a wild ride over the past three years, Lawless says.

While values in the million-dollar-plus sector of the residential market are up, sales volumes remain low, he notes.

His analysis of recent movements in the top end of the property market reveals that the most expensive 20 per cent of Australia’s suburbs climbed 19.8 per cent in value in 2007, compared to 13.7 per cent across the broader market.

“As the global financial crisis kicked in and started to bite, with shares and property being sold off to recoup further portfolio losses, values across this same set of premium suburbs fell by 7.4 per cent compared with a 2.5 per cent fall in all home values,” Lawless says.

The premium market turned again in 2009, recording growth of 12.1 per cent over the calendar year, compared to 11.3 per cent across the board.

“For those that can afford the premium price tag premium property markets have generally provided stronger capital gains than the broader marketplace thanks to the inherently tight supply of inner-city, coastal and character properties,” Lawless says.