Property growth is creating a new generational gap and class division according to this week’s news cycle. It’s dramatic, but true.

Baby Boomers are under fire for suggesting Gen Y and Millennial folk forgo smashed avocado on toast as one strategy for entering the Sydney property market. Then came the notion that any contention will subside once the Boomers’ heirs inherit this impending wealth. That’s dark.

We’re usually quick to dismiss these broad overviews with more insight as to what’s happening in the market at street level. Smaller shifts in dynamics and changes in desirability often paint a more balanced picture. However, it’s hard to ignore the fact that some inner-city owners are earning 4 times their suburb’s annual median wage doing nothing but being ‘in’ the market.

134 Hargrave Street in Paddington sold for $3.9m in August 2016 – almost 20% more than it’s previous sale price in 2015. The Paddington median house price sits at $1.7m.

Across a 3-year period, a snapshot of 10 Sydney suburbs have generated more capital growth than the suburbs’ median income – that’s all houses, and more than half the apartments.

Houses in Potts Point take the crown as one of the biggest money-spinners of the past 3 years. The median price has jumped more than 69% to $2 million dollars, a rise of around $274,000pa. Meanwhile the average income for Potts Point residents sits around $62,000pa. No one on $62,000pa is snapping up the $2 million homes, so it’s easy to see where this concept of a ‘generational gap’ comes from. While Potts Point is largely an apartment district dotted with rare statement homes, the trend continues in more archetypal Sydney suburbs.

This one bedroom apartment on Wylde Street, Potts Point sold off-market in February 2016 for $747,000 – close to 30% more than it’s sale price in 2014.

North of the city, houses in North Ryde and Gladesville have also served owners well, generating 300% more in income from capital growth than working locals are earning.

In North Ryde this four bedroom family home on Twin Road previously sold in 2005 for $590,000. It last changed hands in May 2016 for $1.485m, close to the suburb median house price of $1.4m .

North Ryde also sits high on the list for apartments that outperform its people. The suburb’s median unit prices have jumped $79,000 a year for the past 3 years while the average income was around $55,000pa in the same period.

While apartment growth doesn’t annihilate Sydney wages quite like a house and land package, plenty of areas top our median income including Redfern, Rozelle, Marrickville, Chippendale, North Ryde, East Ryde, Alexandria and Rosebery.

Between December 2015 and May 2016 this Abercrombie Street apartment in Chippendale saw a 35%+ price jump.

Hopeful young homebuyers are looking for glimpses of opportunity to enter this ever-bullish race. Tell them to lay off the smashed avocado, they’ll fire back with sums. The reality of the current inner-city market is that demand is unrelenting, and the growing bi-product of this demand, is the concern of availability and affordability.

Now ‘attainability’ is beginning to dominate the conversation.

In the past 3 years in these 10 suburbs, the smallest growth was $49,302pa in Potts Point apartments. At $22 a brunch, Millennials would have to skip brunch 2,241 times a year (6 brunches a day) to be in a neutral position, back at zero. With ‘Millennial discounts’ now trending at Sydney cafes, they have brunch, a sense of humour, but not much hope.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics – Income Information and Microburbs – Median Price, and 3-Year Growth Rate.