The suburbs in Australia's largest cities where almost no one sells their home

Turnover in Australia's property market is falling, reflecting the impact of the recent downturn in prices, ongoing affordability constraints in some areas, increased transaction costs as a result of higher land costs, as well as a tightening in lending standards.

The reduction in turnover levels has been particularly pronounced in Australia's largest cities, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

According to recent analysis from CoreLogic, total settled sales in these cities fell by 13.5%, 12.9% and 12.1% respectively in the year to June 2018.

However, in some pockets of those cities, not only are turnover levels low, they're close to non-existent.

These three charts from RiskWise Property Research reveal the suburbs in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that have the longest average period between a property changing hands.

Here's the top five list from Sydney.

And for Melbourne.

And finally, Brisbane.

Berala, in Sydney's west, currently has the longest hold period of any suburb in these cities at 32.8 years. In Melbourne, the longest average length between sales is in Huntingdale, located in the city's southeast, while in Brisbane the longest hold period is in Point Lookout, perched on the northern tip of North Stradbroke Island.

From a citywide perspective, the average hold period in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane stands at 11.9 years, 12.1 years and 11 years respectively.

Rather than reflecting other factors, RiskWise Property Research CEO Doron Peleg says suburbs with long holding periods generally provided “something outstanding” for its residents such as a strong community, location and proximity to employment or the CBD, good schools, transport and services.

“If a suburb has some of these characteristics people don’t see any reason to sell. Basically, they don’t want to leave,” Peleg said.