A stroll through Australia's cheapest city suburb: Gagebrook, Tasmania
Tasmania's Gagebrook, in Brighton local government area, takes out top prize as the cheapest city suburb for houses, with RP Data recently citing the median house price as $135,184 in their Spring Buyers Guide report. It's now listed even lower at $112,500.
With a gross indicative rental yield of 10.2%, due to a $215 cited median rent, it is an area that is surprisingly slow moving, taking 175 days on market on average for a home to exchange hands, and seeing a 9.2% vendor discount rate.
We have to take these statistics with a little bit of wariness when trying to judge the entire area - we saw just 13 properties transact in the last 12 months. Tim Lawless previously noted that these areas are often cheap for a reason.
Bound by Briggs Road and the Jordan River, its boundaries surround Herdsmans Cove and it neighbours Bridgewater. It is 20 to 25 kilometres from Hobart.
As one of the northern-most suburbs of Hobart, it previously was seen as a social housing area and certainly does appear to have a lower socio-economic demographic. Looking over to the 2011 census data we see that there are 1,567 people, with a median age of 24, and a median weekly income of $622, residents are mainly Australian or English with 45.2% working full time. The most common occupations included labourer (27.5%), community and personal service workers (16.7%) and technicians and trades (14.4%) closely followed by sales (14.1%).
The suburb was originally created as a broadacre public housing estate in the 1970s when concentrating public housing into one area was common and the social issues not yet readily identified. It has been noted as the most socio-economically disadvantaged area in Tasmania by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The vast majority of dwellings, at 95%, are separate houses (with 77.2% being three-bedders) and the majority are rented, at 71.2%. This paints a sharp comparison to the stroll we took through Peppermint Grove, Australia's most expensive suburb, yesterday.
When looking through twitter, the type of common tweets include the following:
Suspicious house fires Gagebrook: In the early hours of Thursday 22 August 2013 three separate house fires o... https://t.co/xedcX3pAtR
— Police News Tasmania (@PoliceNewsTas) August 22, 2013.@TasmaniaPolice have seized 4 shotguns and 2 rifles from property in Gagebrook. 20y/o male in custody. #sxnews pic.twitter.com/Ve41G9tzba
— Southern Cross News (@SXNewsTas) July 18, 2013Fire crews were called to this Gagebrook house at 6:08 this evening. Damage visible inside #sxnews pic.twitter.com/SMAyLxcLf8
— Adam Reibel (@AdamReibel) July 7, 2013
Council meeting minutes in October refer to a resident asking to waive his fees for the planning and building of a shed on his property due to financial hardship, and the council decide to waive certain fees but not others for fear of setting a precedent. A 'Tip Shop' is discussed, where items that come from the tip that are saleable are then sold on to provide the council with more funds. Playgrounds are also a major source of discussion.
The Griffith Review, discussing our divided nation, say that some of the issue is to do with the property boom that surged the prices up to their current state.
"The "new have nots" are already feeing the pinch, not least of windfall envy. This boom has placed home ownership out of the reach of many Tasmanians, including the majority of Bridgewater and Gagebrook locals who missed out when prices were lower," the article notes, pointing out that while house prices of around $150,000 may seem like peanuts to those on the mainland, those in the suburb might not quite see it that way with household income lows, unemployment highs and educational attainment below the Tasmanian average.
What is currently on the market in Gagebrook speaks volumes.
34 Sattler Street (pictured below)
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"Offered to our target group of Streets Ahead and Home Share," the agent advertises. The $120,000, three-bedroom, one-bathroom home appears to have undergone a recent cosmetical renovation.
Then there's 20 Tottenham Road (pictured below) which also notes "Streets Ahead & Home Share please apply 1st 30 days." This three-bedroom, one-bathroom house is advertised at $115,000.
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And 28 Plymouth Road (pictured below), advertised to investors and first home buyers, for $140,000 has four bedrooms and one bathroom.
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Streets Ahead and Home Share are Tasmania's assistance to those trying to get onto the property ladder. Often, they are provided for sales of Housing Tasmania properties, which can be offered to Streets Ahead and Home Share eligible buyers first as seen in these advertisements.
It has been talked about on investment forums for the last few years, not always favourably, and it has cropped up in a Commonwealth Bank report (in conjunction with RP Data) as having potential cash flow positive opportunities.
In the 2008 Tasmanian state budget, there was an announced urban renewal project, and there has been steady interest in this since 1996 with the Bridgewater/Gagebrook Urban Renewal Program (affectionately referred to as BURP). However, it's this gentrification question, and how quickly this may occur, that seems to be the 'wait and see' factor for many potential buyers.