Real estate: The most affordable and liveable suburbs across Australia

House hunters should look towards Chester Hill in Sydney, Albanvale in Melbourne, Strathpine in Brisbane and Glenorchy in Hobart according to the Affordable and Liveable Property Guide by PRD Real Estate.

For units, the top were Bankstown in Sydney, Springwood in Brisbane, Williams Landing in Melbourne and Berriedale in Hobart according to the new report.

Report author PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said these suburbs would be known to locals, but perhaps not to those in other areas of each city.

“There is always a tendency for people to look just at places that they’ve known for a long time or places that their friends have bought in,” Dr Mardiasmo said.

“This report sort of says ‘Hey, have you thought about these other places that might give you much more bang for your buck?’.”

She said that sometimes just looking one suburb out from a larger, better-known neighbouring ‘burb could drastically increase your buying power.

“The good thing about this is that all of these suburbs have potential,” Dr Mardiasmo said.

“They’re all suburbs that we’ve combed through to make sure that there has been positive growth or very little negative growth in the past 12 months.”

Houses: Most affordable and liveable suburbs

Chester Hill (Sydney) - $1,052,500

Albanvale (Melbourne) - $597,500

Strathpine (Brisbane) - $685,000

Glenorchy (Hobart) - $580,000

Making the grade

Suburbs were assessed across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane within a 20-kilometre radius of their respective capital cities and Hobart suburbs within 10 kilometres for the guide.

They were scored on their availability of affordable housing, access to transport and amenities, low crime and unemployment rates, high rental yields and planned infrastructure, including new housing.

The report also included suburbs with a good amount of housing available to purchase - an important inclusion in the current climate of low housing supply.

While the suburbs identified in the report scored highly for all criteria, Dr Mardiasmo said there were still other affordable suburbs in each city which may have missed one or two of the key indicators.

“We’ve picked what I would call the ‘creme de la creme’ of affordability, livability and availability, but there are other suburbs that you can go to if say, for example, you’re not too concerned about investment because you’re going to be an owner occupier,” she said.

Inner-city options

Some of those were inner-city suburbs with great access to cafes, restaurants and entertainment - something not considered in the study - but that were marked down because of low availability, slower price growth or even higher crime rates.

Dr Mardiasmo said some of those areas, though technically meeting the affordability criteria, were very close to each city’s median, and still out of reach for many home buyers.

Sydenham in Sydney, Footscray in Melbourne and Jindalee in Brisbane were all examples of this - with median house prices between a nominal $6,500 and $22,000 less than their respective capital city medians.

Suburbs where bang for buck and high liveability scores could be found opened up more when looking at townhouses and units, the report showed.

Bigger choice with units

For example, of the 341 suburbs included in Sydney, only 38 were affordable for houses, while 125 were affordable for units.

In Melbourne’s 234 suburbs, 57 were affordable for houses and 99 were affordable for units.

“If we just look at the amount of ready to sell stock that is planned for development in Sydney and Melbourne, most of them are units,” Dr Mardiasmo said.

“So you’re going to get more chances to buy units because there’s more of them coming on board.”

Units: Most Affordable and Liveable Suburbs

Bankstown (Sydney) - $522,500

Williams Landing (Melbourne) - $405,000

Springwood (Brisbane) - $420,000

Berriedale (Hobart) - $450,500

This story was first published as Shortlist these: the secret suburbs that are affordable and liveable on view.com.au