Sydney’s $2 million club was once reserved for Vaucluse, Mosman and a handful of other harbourfront enclaves. But after a period of rampant house price growth that club is less exclusive.

New data from Domain reveals a whopping 78 suburbs now boast a median house price of $2 million or more. Five years ago the list was limited to just six suburbs.

In the past three months alone 26 suburbs have joined the ranks, including Kingsford and Darlinghurst, which didn’t even have a $1 million median five years ago. Turramurra, Concord West and Haberfield also make the cut.

“Two million dollars has become the new $1 million rather quickly,” said Domain chief economist Andrew Wilson. With price growth continuing it wouldn’t be long before more suburbs join the club, he said.

South-east Sydney’s Malabar, where prices have doubled over the last five years, was a surprise new entry on the list.

Few of its residents had expected the suburb to grow to a median of $2,065,000 so quickly. In 2012, its median house price was $1.1 million.

Malabar local Candace Holmes, who is selling the three-bedroom duplex she bought for $850,000 in 2005, never imagined her suburb would have such a price growth spurt.

“I moved here from Bronte because I wanted to stay on the coast, and it was much more affordable than other eastern suburbs then,” she said.

“It was never as popular, it was always quite a little gem,” she added. “It’s become a much more desirable suburb since then.”

While Malabar still trails well behind Bronte – which has a median house price of $3,221,000 – it’s more expensive than the neighbouring suburb of Maroubra, which has a median of $2,002,500, and suburbs like St Ives on the Upper North Shore and Newport on the Northern Beaches which have $2 million and $1,955,000 medians.

Selling agent Nader Hotait, of Ray White Maroubra and South Coogee, said the suburb had seen strong price growth in recent years as tightly held, original-condition homes sold to young families priced out of more expensive suburbs like South Coogee and Coogee.

“We started seeing more development and newer homes being built,” said Mr Hotait. “A lot of buyers have come here looking for better value, better views and larger blocks.”

He noted while the suburb had always been a quieter hamlet for families, it had been drawing increasing interest from builder developers drawn in by large blocks with duplex potential.

Sydney was ranked the second least affordable in the world, behind Hong Kong, in a survey released earlier this year.

The Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, which ranked middle-income housing affordability by dividing the average house price by the average household income, deemed Sydney “severely unaffordable”.

“We’re creating a city of winners and losers,” said head of Urban and Regional Planning and Policy at the University of Sydney, Professor Peter Phibbs. “There are fewer and fewer options in Sydney for people on middle and lower incomes.”

Professor Phibbs said because almost half of Sydney’s suburbs had a median house price above $1 million the need for government action was urgent.

“First-home buyers are increasingly looking to other places,” he said. “People just can’t make the deposit, it’s not the repayments that’s killing them. It’s like trying to catch a runaway train that’s left the station.”

He believes cutting the capital gains discount is key to improving housing affordability and noted that unless price growth slows, it will become increasingly hard for Sydney to recruit talented professionals from other global and national destinations.

Sydney suburbs with a median price of $2 million or more*​

