Property hotspots for 2010

With Australia’s property market continuing to rally despite the threat of rising interest rates, it’s more important than ever to hunt out the suburbs and regions that offer the best value for money.

With this in mind, SmartCompany turned to two of Australia’s foremost property experts: Australian Property Monitors chief economist Mathew Bell and Terry Ryder, owner of property advisory services Hotspotting.

Here are their picks for Australia’s best property hotspots.

ACT

Gungahlin

Terry Ryder nominates the emerging area of Gungahlin to the north of Canberra as an emerging hotspot and population hub, with a new road link to Canberra, new schools under development and a number of new estates filling quickly.

“There are also other community facilities being developed, so it has got some growth drivers in new transport infrastructure and other community infrastructure happening.”

Narrabundah

Bell expects this suburb in central Canberra to perform strongly in the coming year.
“It’s right in the heart of Canberra, where house prices have underperformed an overall very strong market. Expect this suburb to do much better in 2010.”

New South Wales

Sutherland

Bell says days on market for houses in this suburb has more than halved, falling from 79 days in the six months to June 2009 to 31 days by December, and the stock level has also fallen by 20%.
“Both are indications of strong demand and not enough supply,” Bell says. Yet there is room for price growth, as unit prices have risen only 8% in two years, underperforming Sydney as a whole.

Mona Vale

Bell says the Northern Beaches underperformed the rest of Sydney during 2009, and he expects this to be rectified in 2010.
“Mona Vale’s median house price is still under where it was in late 2007, but has been rising all through 2009, culminating in a very strong December quarter.” He says 2010 will see the median price get back to historic highs on strong demand in the $750,000 to $1.5 million price bracket.

Newcastle

For Ryder, 2010 is going to be more about regional centres than capital cities due the level of spending in these areas, mainly due to Australia’s continuing resources boom.

“Newcastle stands out for me, and the wider Hunter Valley area, because of the expansion of the port and the expansion of mining activities in that area.”

There is also the new Hunter Expressway, which was funded in the last Federal Budget. “So there is a lot of infrastructure spending, creating jobs, and therefore demand for real estate in Newcastle and that is something that is going to be worthy of attention.”

Orange

The town of Western Sydney west of Orange also stands out, thanks in no small part to the $2 billion expansion to the nearby gold mine that is currently underway. The town’s hospital is being expanded and it has also been named as the headquarters for a new state government super department, which will see a number of State Government departments combined into one.

“That’s going to mean a lot of jobs coming into Orange. It’s looking pretty good.”

Byron Bay

Bell says that Byron is typical of many coastal tourist areas that fell particularly heavily in 2008 and 2009.

“Prices are still under 2007 levels, but have shown strong growth in the most recent quarter. Expect this area to continue to recover as the economy generally and tourism industry specifically rebound.”