August 8, 2026 — 5:00amSydney’s prestigious coastal suburbs have had the deepest home value falls from their recent highs, with the cost to buy the typical home in some spots plunging by close to 20 per cent.North Curl Curl, in the Northern Beaches, has dropped the most from its recent cyclical peak, according to Cotality data. Since September, dwelling prices in the suburb have fallen 19.4 per cent, or almost $790,000, to a median value of $3.28 million at the end of July.Prices have fallen from their peak in North Curl Curl. One local buyer’s agent says stock in the suburb is tight.Wolter PeetersThis was followed by eastern suburb Malabar, which fell 18.7 per cent from its October high to a median of $2.9 million, and another Northern Beaches suburb, Wheeler Heights. It fell 17.3 per cent from its November peak to a median of $2.15 million.Property prices jumped last year amid cash rate cuts, rising consumer confidence and low supply, but this reversed through 2026. Sydney’s median home value has fallen 4 per cent in the three months to July to a median of $1.24 million as affordability pressures dent confidence and higher rates bite. Experts say the top end of the market has borne the brunt of the drops, compared with more affordable spots.Cotality head of research Gerard Burg said many of Sydney’s pricier areas had accumulated a lot of value, more quickly during the “up cycle”, with their declines larger as a result.“When you look across the country, we have seen this tendency that it has been the highest-value areas that have been initially slowing, and then once they’ve turned negative, deteriorating faster than more affordable areas,” he said.“They simply have fewer buyers to be able to access this type of market and, as a result, that’s led the declines lower.”Out of the 10 biggest dwelling value falls – which includes houses and units – five are eastern suburbs, while there are three suburbs each in the Northern Beaches, and two in the North Sydney and Hornsby region. All but one – North Wahroonga – are near the coast. At a suburb level, the dwelling index tends to show less volatility.Shane Vincent, principal at Belle Property Randwick, who covers suburbs from Clovelly to Malabar, said inflation and monetary policy had affected property prices in the first quarter of 2026.“That probably came about the same time we saw a lot of new properties come to the market. So, supply was high, demand was standoffish, and that had an immediate impact.”Vincent said there had been drops of between 5 and 10 per cent “depending on the quality of the property”, and for those that lacked “broad appeal” as much as 15 per cent.“Over the last couple of years you’ve seen a lot of top-end Malabar homes being traded for between $4 million and $6 million, and as the markets come off, there’s been less motivation for those types of sellers to go to the market,” he said. “But there’s always that undercurrent of trading in that entry-level stock for homes priced between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.”Michelle May, principal of Michelle May Buyer’s Agents, who works across Sydney including the inner west and lower north shore, said for expensive areas, with a potentially smaller pool of sales, one sale can skew data “up or down”, but agreed the upper end had cooled.“That first home buyer pool … buoyed by the 5 per cent deposit scheme, that’s still very active, but this upper end of the market … I’m not surprised to see those suburbs there.” Sydney’s most recent price peak was in January and it has fallen 5.3 per cent since, according to Cotality data. Burg said some Sydney areas had hit a peak much earlier than that, while other more fringe parts of the city, like Wollondilly, had risen in value.“We’re still seeing growth of over 1 per cent in some of these markets, which is in stark contrast with what we see at that top end,” he said.Peter Kelaher, the director of PK Property Buyer’s Agents, which specialises in the northern beaches, the lower and upper north shore, said there were many “different price ranges and types of properties”, but he said Wheeler Heights had likely dropped about 5 per cent, while North Curl Curl had likely come off about 10 per cent.“Up to 10 per cent would be up to probably $7 million, and then $7 million and over has probably come off about 15 per cent, some even higher,” he said of North Curl Curl.Stock was tight in his coverage area, Kelaher said, with vendors shying away from listing.“The only people that are selling at the moment are divorce, downsizers and death,” he said.“The supply is very, very dire at the moment, the worst it’s been in probably 15 years because people just go, ‘I’m not going to sell. I don’t need to sell. I’ll wait another two years.’”Property listingsFrom our partners