What is an apartment balcony worth?

After four years of house hunting in the world’s second most expensive city, Annabelle Camer and her fiance John Le finally received the keys to their first home last week.

While the white-collar duo who both work at Qantas, aged 29 and 31, searched high and low for their dream first home, at the top of their must-have list was an outdoor entertaining space – and they were prepared to pay for it.

“A balcony was a non-negotiable,” Camer told AFR Weekend. “But the one we bought had a balcony and a courtyard too, which was an added bonus.”

That you’d pay more for a balcony makes sense, but the size of the difference between apartments that are otherwise the same (bedrooms, bathrooms, car spaces) might come as a shock, especially if you live in Brisbane or Sydney. There, all else being equal, a balcony will cost almost $400,000 more.

Camer and Le spent nearly $1.3 million on their two-bedroom apartment in Sydney’s inner-south suburb of Rosebery, sold by Ray White’s Max Klimenko, which included a generous front-facing balcony. “The biggest thing that we loved about it was the ability to entertain outdoors and have a whole group of people occupying the spaces,” she said.

Their experience taps into a broader trend reshaping apartment markets across the country: the value of a balcony. Retailer Woodbury Furniture analysed 12 months of apartment and unit sales data from realestate.com.au across central city postcodes in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane City, Adelaide and Perth.

The balcony premium was most pronounced in Brisbane City, where apartments with balconies sold for an eye-watering $391,000 more on average than those without. That’s a 46.4 per cent mark-up, with the average balcony-equipped apartment fetching $1.24 million compared to $849,000 for those that leave you staring out a window.

Sydney’s inner-city was not far behind, with balconies boosting average sale prices by more than $360,000 – around a 20 per cent bump. Melbourne, on the other hand, remained relatively balcony-agnostic with the average premium being $47,000, or 7.5 per cent.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the Sydney balcony premium makes perfect sense due to the city’s ocean and harbourside views.

“It comes down to the fact that people like the ability to go outside while at home. One of the challenges for apartment living is that you don’t have a backyard, so balconies satisfy a bit of that requirement,” Conisbee said.

“If you have a look at Sydney, people like living in apartments that provide a view. So if you’re high up, you want a balcony to enjoy the view. In Melbourne, you don’t necessarily have such great views, so it’s a different decision that people make.”

Perth was an outlier. Over the past year, apartments without balconies sold for an average of $33,000 more than those with them.

According to Woodbury interior designer Chris Catinaro, that’s likely due to Perth’s more generous land supply and a preference for full-size yards or alfresco dining zones.

But not all balconies are created equal. The ones that add value come with either views or greenery, Conisbee noted. “If it backs onto a street or stares into a neighbour’s brick wall, buyers quickly lose interest.”

Camer agreed. “We didn’t love the outdoor balconies where there were more dense apartment blocks,” she said.

But for their new place in Rosebery? The outdoor space made all the difference. “It’s a place where we can grow as a family. This really feels like a place you can stay in to let a dog or kids be outside – I think the balcony really adds value to the property.”