Five surprising things that can boost your property value

There are plenty of no-brainer factors which affect how much your home is worth. And then a few that might just surprise you.

Does your home have what it takes to make buyers pay more?

1) Coffee

Aussies are coffee lovers and our café culture is part of the national psyche. So, does proximity to good coffee equal higher real estate prices? Absolutely.

Melbourne real estate agent Daniel Atsis says café hubs are driving surrounding property prices up and are a strong selling point for real estate agents.

“Buyers are looking for established suburbs that sell ‘lifestyle’ with all the trimmings, and sellers are using those lifestyle attractions such as cafés to add value to their properties,” he told Beanscene.

“It’s hard to put a number on the actual value a café adds to a suburb, but it will continue to contribute to prices over the next 10 years. The commonality is that café hubs make people stay in an area.”  

Nerida Conisbee, chief economist at REA Group, added: “The more people drink coffee, the more highly desirable it is to live near a bustling café, which adds value to a property’s social offering.

“People value a daily chat, and it’s that connection that makes a barista so valuable in your neighbourhood.”

While Australian coffee snobs will avoid Starbucks like the plague, a 2015 report found that in the US, proximity to the brand’s coffee shops correlated to significantly higher home values. A comparison of Zillow Home Value data with Starbucks locations found that between 1997 and 2014, the average value of homes within 400m of a Starbucks increased by 96%, compared to 65% for all US homes.

2) Names and Numbers

Residing at 13 Wanke Street or 4 Fanny Avenue? Your home could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars less than an identical house around the corner.

A 2017 study by Geelong school students, backed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the University of Sydney, found ‘silly’ address names devalued a property by some 20% compared with their sensibly labelled counterparts - amounting to a $140,000 difference on a median-priced Melbourne house.

Sounds crazy? According to UK property website Zoopla, road names containing ‘Warrens’ fetch more than double the national average, and homes on ‘King’ and ‘Prince’ streets are worth more than those with ‘Queen’ or ‘Princess’ in their title.

And research in the US by Trulia shows 'Boulevard' tends to indicate the priciest addresses, followed by 'Place', 'Road', 'Terrace' and 'Court'.  The commonplace ‘Street', meanwhile, correlates with the least expensive homes, followed by 'Drive' and 'Avenue'. No broken dreams for people living on a boulevards, then, who can expect to sell for 36% more than lowly street dwellers, based on figures for median price per m2.

But it’s not just names that affect your property’s value.

If you live at no. 8, your property may be considered lucky and enticing to Chinese buyers, for whom the number can symbolise prosperity. On the flip side, no. 4 sounds similar to the Mandarin word for death and could send your lofty price expectations into mourning.

Zoopla’s UK research found that homes with the no. 13 sold for some $16,000 less that comparable properties. And, strangely, it established that odd-numbered houses fetched around $1,000 more than even-numbered ones.

3) Schools

While your dream home might not include proximity to piercing bells, raucous breaktimes and gridlocked drop offs, it’s worth remembering that being close to well-regarded schools is a major value-add.

According to Domain's School Zones Report 2023, properties in highly sought-after school zones fetch prices some 10% higher than the median of the suburb.

The latest figures show house prices in the zone for Ipswich’s Walloon State Primary School, for example, rose 44% in the 12 months to July 2021 compared with the previous year. And homeowners in the catchment for Tamborine Mountain State High School saw prices rocket by 38% over the same period. Both increases were driven by families migrating out of capital cities in search of more affordable lifestyles.

When buying, it pays to drill down into catchment boundaries and future planning rather than presuming your proximity makes school zone inclusion a no-brainer. Catchments can traverse multiple postcodes and cut through a suburb, creating significant price differences between neighbouring streets.

One property lost $100,000 from its value overnight in 2018, according to The Brisbane Times, after the building of a new school meant it dropped out of the Brisbane State High School catchment zone.

4) Trees

It’s no surprise that leafy suburban streets equal desirable places to live. In fact, 2017 research by AECOM focussed on three Sydney suburbs found that a 10% increase in streetscape tree canopy could increase the value of properties by an average of $50,000.

Less obvious is the impact of your own garden trees on the value of your block. The American property website Real Simple reports that established surrounding trees can add 3-15% to individual home prices.

"A mature tree can have an appraised value of between US $1,000 and US $10,000 plus, according to the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers," arborist Jason Parker told the site.

Buyers appreciate that trees provide privacy, shelter and the wellbeing effects of carbon dioxide absorption and oxygen generation. The shade they offer can also help reduce energy bills and noise pollution.

The type of tree matters, though. While Australian buyers love and appreciate frangipanis, crepe myrtles, Japanese maples, magnolias, ash and fruit trees, they’re generally less enamoured with the maintenance required for gums, conifers and liquidambars. 

5) Passivity

Today’s home buyers want passive homes that are well insulated, well ventilated, naturally warmed by the sun in winter and cooled by the breezes in summer.

Faced with climate uncertainty and energy price hikes, Aussies will pay big money for homes designed with long-term sustainability in mind.

Domain’s latest Sustainability in Property Report, released in June 2022, found properties with energy-efficient features fetch $125,000 more than those without, and sell significantly faster.

Sue Connor of Gaea Architects told Domain her clients were increasingly willing to forego floorspace for energy efficiency, with a passive house saving them up to 80% on energy bills.

“Australia is going through a lot of climatic change and people need to think about more than just solar panels and water tanks," she said.

Gaea says the trend towards passive homes is not just about energy savings but is driven in part by health and wellbeing - such as sensitivities to dust and mould - and clients who “want to help the planet”.

As a nation, we’re turned on by electric car charging and solar power and turned off by over reliance on air-conditioning. We’re happy to spend significantly more upfront for homes which enhance our wellbeing, environment, and hip pocket.

Finally

Of course, there are multiple factors which will ultimately decide your property’s value.

But a leafy, eco-home on 8 King’s Boulevard, a stone’s throw from decent coffee and your NAPLAN-slaying local primary, could be a better investment than a bare-yarded fibro at remote 13 Butt Street…