Hotspotting.com.au
While Darwin is the obvious place to look for a hotspot in the Top End – and Ryder says the market has finally reached the point where it has become more stable – Ryder is looking towards Alice Springs for future growth.
He says strong government spending in the area – a direct result of the Howard Government’s controversial “intervention” policy – is helping to boost activity in the town, which actually relies on a few sectors for growth, including tourism, agriculture and defence (thanks to the Pine Gap base just outside town).
In addition, housing supply is quite constrained, with parts of the town surrounded by Crown land and land owned by the local indigenous people. Prices and rental yields remain good.
RP Data
Tim Lawless is looking at suburbs on the outskirts of Darwin, including Driver, Malak and Anula. However, it’s clear prices have risen sharply in recent years – four of the five suburbs have median prices over $500,000.
Hotspotting.com.au
Terry Ryder is very bullish on regional areas right around Australia, and the booming centre of Queensland is no different. He highlights Townsville as his medium-term hotspot, and says the Queensland Government has been trying to make this a sort of second capital of the state for a number of years.
“It’s the strongest regional economy in Australia and its property market has been very solid. We’ve seen a bit of a pause for the last two years, but it’s ready to surge again for a number of reasons.”
As well as the traditional strengths of tourism, the property sector and activity generated by the defence sector (there is a large army base in town) the town is starting to enjoy a solid boost from the resources sector, particularly as a base for fly-in/fly-out workers.
APM
Yvonne Chan from APM is concentrating on the unit market in Brisbane, where her top picks are located close to the centre of the city. Happily for bargain hunters, there are two suburbs with median prices well under $300,000, including the suburb of Woodridge where unit prices are just $220,000, but price growth has been strong over the past five years.
RP Data
The list of best performing suburbs in Brisbane are outside the 10 kilometre ring around the centre of the city, with prices ranging from a very affordable $410,000 in the suburb of Fitzgibbon to about $589,000 in the suburb of Belmont.
In terms of units, Lawless says the best performers like a little closer to the Brisbane CBD. Units in the suburb of East Brisbane are among the quickest to sell, with an average time on market of just 26.6 days.
Hotspotting.com.au
The South Australian economy has performed well in recent years, thanks in part to the resurgence of the mining boom. One town well-placed to benefit from that into the future is Whyalla, which has been on something of a rollercoaster ride over the past few years.
After the town’s steel works and shipbuilding industry closed down, the town’s population fell from 35,000 to 23,000, but Ryder says the population is growing on the back of several large projects.
The town’s desalination plant, which is supplying water to BHP Billiton, and a new $1 billion rare earth mining project is helping to drive economic growth.
Ryder says yields are at 6-6.5%, while canny bargain hunters can pick up homes under $200,000.
APM
Yvonne Chan’s top picks are all located closer to the centre of Adelaide, led by the suburbs of Kurralta Park, Greenacres and Klemzig which are in the western part of the city. Prices remain reasonably affordable, even in these city areas; houses in Chan’s pick of Smithfield Plains attract median prices of $210,000, with yields of about 5.7%.
RP Data
Tim Lawless of RP Data has nominated a mix of inner and outer Adelaide suburbs for his list of performers, with the list of best performing suburbs for houses led by the suburb of St Marys, which is 9.1 kilometres from the city, where properties are staying on the market for less than 30 days. As with Chan and Ryder’s hotspot nominations, Lawless’ list of top performing suburbs for houses is notable for the very affordable prices. There are three suburbs under $400,000 and one suburb (Brahma Lodge) under $260,000.
In terms of units, Lawless is looking closer to town and particularly to the area of West Torrens, where the suburbs of Lockleys and Kurralata Park have been standouts.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
