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Affordable & Liveable Property Guide 1st Half 2018

The PRD Affordable & Liveable Property Guides are available for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Hobart. The guides provide valuable insights for the Australian property market, reporting on many key indicators to create a holistic picture of property conditions in each capital city. 2018 sees liveability added as a new criterion included in our methodology. This ensures that not only does our report highlight affordable suburbs but also those that have high liveability factors. This provides us with insight to the ‘cost of liveability’ and how much home buyers need to be prepared to pay.

Affordable & Liveable Property Guide 1st Half 2018

The PRD Affordable & Liveable Property Guides are available for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Hobart. The guides provide valuable insights for the Australian property market, reporting on many key indicators to create a holistic picture of property conditions in each capital city.

2018 sees liveability added as a new criterion included in our methodology. This ensures that not only does our report highlight affordable suburbs but also those that have high liveability factors. This provides us with insight to the ‘cost of liveability’ and how much home buyers need to be prepared to pay. It also serves as a warning to local and state governments on the rising costs of liveability. It also provides focus areas for further development to create a balanced opportunity for residents, regardless of their income bracket.

Methodology

Each Affordable & Liveable Property Guide focuses on suburbs within a 20km radius of the CBD and takes the following factors into consideration:

  • Property trends - suburbs will have a minimum of 20 transactions for statistical reliability purposes, with positive price growth over the past 15 months (2016 to Q1 2018*).
  • Investment - suburbs will have on-par or higher rental yield than their Metro area, as well as on-par or lower vacancy rates (as of December 2017).
  • Affordability and liveability - suburbs will have a median price below the maximum affordable property sale price, based on the average state loan. The premium percentage added differs from each capital city, to ensure suburbs chosen also satisfy the liveability criteria. Key liveability factors included ensuring the suburbs have a low crime rate, availability of amenities were within a 5km radius (i.e. schools, parks, shopping centres, and health care facilities), and an unemployment rate that is on par or lower in comparison to the state average (as determined by the ABS Census 2016).
  • Project development - suburbs will have a high total estimated value of future project development for the 1st half of 2018^^. This ensures sustainable economic growth, having a positive effect on to the property market.

Affordable & Liveable Suburbs

A key finding in the guides is not only regarding affordability, but also and more importantly, liveability. Based on affordability measures a number of suburbs were identified as affordable, however most of these suburbs did not meet the liveability criteria. To meet the liveability criteria the percentage premium added to the state average loan had to be increased considerably, which illustrates the cost of liveability. Table 1 provides a comparison of affordability and liveability in each capital city.

Table 1. Affordability vs. LiveabilityTable 1 - National.PNG 

Table 1 illustrates liveability costs between the capital cities, with Sydney proving to have the highest average liveability cost at 18%, however interestingly this is on par with Hobart (16.0%). Brisbane proves to be the most affordable and liveable capital city, with the average liveable cost of only 5%.

First home buyer’s activity continues to be a focal point in the 2018 property market. Table 2 confirms declining affordability over the past 12 months, with all capital cities reporting a lower percentage access to the more affordable suburbs. Those with a budget of less than $500K has suffered the most in Melbourne – 12 months ago they can access 19.4% of the market and now only 1.9%. It’s no surprise that those looking in Sydney need to have a higher budget, continuously double than other capital cities.

Table 2. Accessible suburbs by price rangeTable 2A - National.PNG

Table 2B - National.PNG

The PRD Affordable & Liveable Property Guides aim to identify hotspots within 20km from each capital city’s CBD. Considering a combination of key property criteria such as: property trends, investment potential, affordability, project development and liveability factors; table 3 identifies the suburbs that should be on every property watchers list.

Table 3. Affordable and liveable suburbsTable 3 - National.PNG

From looking at table 3 it is evident that in general Sydney has the highest entry price yet the lowest rental yield, whereas Hobart provides the lowest entry price with the highest rental yield. This is a similar trend from the 2nd half of 2017, which confirms that Hobart continues to provide the most bang for buck.

Disclaimers NATIONAL.PNG

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