A NEW report from Smart Property Investment has uncovered a list of inner city suburbs where units can still be purchased for less than $300,000, defying a perception that many buyers are priced out of Australia's capital city property markets.
The Inner City Steals report shows that the heart of Perth has emerged as the hottest capital city investment location, with the top four suburbs on the list all located in the WA capital - Highgate, Mount Lawley, North Perth and West Leederville.
“The list was compiled by expert panellists who identified suburbs within 5 kilometres of the CBDs in which one in four units still sell for $300,000 or less,” panellist and Australian Property Monitors economist Dr Andrew Wilson said.
“Panellists were asked to rank the suburbs according to their potential for capital growth based on a variety of macro and micro indicators - we first ranked the suburbs according to the broader capital city prospects, followed by the individual suburbs' own specific market outlook.
“Perth was our top pick, followed by Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and then Hobart.”
Dr Wilson said that there were many indicators showing WA rising out of its property market slump.
“In some of these Perth suburbs, wages have quadrupled in the last 20 years - tripled in the last 15 - and we know that the resources boom is causing that in some cases,” he said.
“Also in the first two months of 2012, dwelling loan approvals were 32 per cent higher in WA than in the first two months of last year - that is an enormous lift and on top of this, I expect to see five to 10 per cent growth in the city's median house price by the end of the year.”