Hotspots: Inner-city suburbs like St Kilda make top 100
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Photos courtesy of Tourism Victoria
The inner-city suburbs of Melbourne contain more investment hotspot opportunities than other inner-city markets, according to Australian Property Investor’s 2011 Top 100 Hot Spot survey.
According to the report, 17 out of the 100 hotspots are within a few kilometres of the Melbourne CBD.
The Bayside or inner-south region of Melbourne has six hotspots, including the fashionable café and nightspot localities of St Kilda and St Kilda East.
WBP residential advisor Sean Thomson says he picked St Kilda because it is a tightly held “popular lifestyle destination”. Metropole director Michael Yardney also nominates St Kilda as a hotspot.
Yardney expects the suburb to perform well because of its popularity with Gen Y owner-occupiers and tenants, particurlarly given its proximity to the CBD.
A lack of supply and strong and increasing demand for properties will continue to drive up prices, according to Yardney.
According to the latest RP Data research, the median house price in St Kilda stands at $860,000 and the unit price at $475,000, with prices rising over 50% over the past five years.
Monique Sasson Wakelin from Wakelin Property advisors picks St Kilda East as a hotpsot, although it does not have the bay views of its neighbour.
What you do get, she says, is close proximity to St Kilda Beach and the shopping and nightlife pleasures of Prahan.
Four inner-North Melbourne suburbs make it onto the API hotspot list, two from Melbourne’s inner northeast and five from southeast Melbourne.
Seven localities in Sydney’s inner southwest and four in Sydney’s inner south have been included on the latest list.
Inner-Sydney hotspots include Ashfield in inner-southwest Sydney, picked by Damian Collins from Momentum Wealth, and Chippendale in inner-south Sydney, chosen by RP Data national research director Tim Lawless. Factors that will drive Chippendale’s growth, according to Lawless, are its affordability and close proximity to the University of Sydney.
The survey lists nine inner-city suburbs in Adelaide and nine inner suburbs in Brisbane.
The hotspots were picked by a panel of 13 experts including researchers Australian Property Monitors and RP Data, international agency Colliers, property experts Terry Ryder, Michael Yardney and Margaret Lomas and property valuers WBP and Herron Todd White.
Thirteen locations in the Hot 100 were chosen by more than one expert: Blacktown, NSW; Coorparoo, QLD, Darlington, NSW; Gladstone, QLD; Newcastle, NSW; Port Noarlunga, SA; Scarborough, SA; Seaford, SA; St Kilda, VIC; Thebarton, SA; Toowoomba, QLD, Torrensville, SA and Townsville, QLD.
