Of 15,000 suburbs, 21 rise to the top as worth a look for investors
Investors are currently spoilt for choice if you have two lots of $9.95 to spend.
Australia’s two leading property investor magazines have simultaneously published their annual guides on the best 100 suburbs in which to buy.
But forget the hot 100 and the top 100, because we can just home in on the 21 locations that happen to appear in both lists. Alphabetically they start with Ainslie in the ACT and end with Warrnambool in Victoria.
Ainslie is viewed as well located, offering good services and despite 12% average annual growth over the past decade is still relatively affordable.
Warrnambool, with prospects as a town in the centre of a regional Victorian district with gas-fired and geothermal power stations, plus wind farms, was forecast to have a strong unit market.
Townsville, Gladstone and Rockhampton, plus the Surat Basin mining towns of Toowoomba and Chinchilla were the Queensland regional listings. It was noted that houses have gone up 15% over the last year in Chinchilla, and rental yields are at a very healthy 7.25%. Paddington was Brisbane’s only joint entrant, given its easy CBD access and lifestyle at affordable pricing for unit landlords.
The three Sydney suburbs to score on both lists were Dulwich Hill and Tempe, in the inner west, Baulkham Hills in the northwest. NSW’s regional cities were Bathurst and Port Macquarie.
Nothing in Perth, but WA did get a mention with Geraldton, the regional boom town with strong resources, agriculture and fishing.
Melbourne dominates the list, with the five entrants of Broadmeadows, Thornbury, St Kilda, Brunswick and Balaclava.
South Australia was represented by Kensington and Port Noarlunga, respectively four and 27 kilometres from the Adelaide CBD.
The lists represents the shared outlook of some two dozen or more of the property industry talking heads who’ve assisted Australian Property Investor and Your Investment Property compile the lists.
The YIP top 100 was made up of 25 suburbs in Sydney, 12 from Melbourne, seven from Perth, eight from Adelaide, five from Canberra, three from Hobart, two from Darwin and 26 from regional areas.
In the API list, 17 out of the 100 hotspots are within a few kilometres of the Melbourne CBD.
Analysts who helped compiled the lists included Charles Tarbey, chairman of Century 21, Tim Lawless, research director at RP Data, valuers WBP and Herron Todd White and Terry Ryder, director of www.hotspotting.com.au. Other experts include Monique Sasson Wakelin and Margaret Lomas.
The rankings were typically compiled based on affordability, accessibility, amenities, demographics and population growth, employment opportunities, rental yield and rental growth potential.
Given there are 15,000 suburbs across Australia, getting 21 that match is quite some feat, although Alexandria in Sydney, which was ranked as the best investment location in the YIP list, didn’t make it onto the API list.
Of course neither of the top 100 lists can be taken as providing all the complete due diligence necessary for buyers. And certainly not this fusion.
And Chinchilla, on the western Darling Downs, highlights just how fluid the outlook can be. It is now fleetingly caught up in the hendra virus outbreak, so presumably is is not as desirable now as it was when the lists were complied.