36% of Australian’s live outside of the capital cities where there are plenty of opportunities for quality, affordable housing. Opportunities in the largest regional areas of each state.

Australia has a highly centralised population with the vast majority of residents choosing to live in capital city regions. Most of the nation’s largest regional cities are located adjacent to the capital cities and in many instances are within a commutable distance.In the main, the second largest cities offer a more affordable range of property and the benefit of ‘big city’ amenity means that they are likely to grow in appeal, especially as linkages with the capital cities continue to improve. In some instances, like the Gold Coast, the housing offering is superior to the vast majority of offering in the capital city and as a result properties tend to be more expensive than the capital city market.Throughout the country we have analysed the following regions on a state by state basis: Newcastle / Lake Macquarie (NSW), Geelong / Surf Coast (Vic), Gold Coast (Qld), Mount Gambier (SA), Mandurah (WA) and Launceston (Tas). Based on total population, these regions represent the 2nd largest cities in each state. Of these regional areas the Gold Coast and Mandurah are the most expensive overall whilst Launceston and Mount Gambier are the most affordable.

MOST AFFORDABLE
Within these regional cities, the most affordable houses are found in Rocherlea, within Launceston. Houses in Rocherlea have a current median house price of $145,000. Launceston is well represented with four of the 10 most affordable suburbs however, the Geelong region with half of the most affordable suburbs in which to buy houses dominates the list. Newcastle is the only other region represented with Windale the fifth most affordable suburb in which to buy a house with a median price of $183,500. Springbrook is the Gold Coasts most affordable house market ($360,000), whilst in SA Mount Gambier is the regions only significant suburb and it has a median of $222,000, whilst Coodanup is Mandurah’s most affordable at $299,000.

The most affordable units within the second largest regional cities are found in the Geelong region at Corio. The median unit price in the suburb sits at $150,000. Like the results for houses, Geelong and Launceston are both well represented when looking for affordable units, with Launceston recording five of the 10 most affordable suburbs and Geelong home to four. Outside of these two regions, units in the regional SA town of Mount Gambier has the third most affordable units with a median price recorded at $154,000. The most affordable units in the other regions not detailed are: Waratah NSW ($193,500), South Stradbroke Qld ($270,000) and Greenfields WA ($249,000).

MOST EXPENSIVE
The most expensive houses in the larger regional areas are mostly found on the Gold Coast. Surfers Paradise ($1.284 million) and Mermaid Beach ($1.1 million) are the only two suburbs in the regions with median house prices greater than $1 million and are two of Qld’s most expensive suburbs. The Gold Coast has eight of the 10 most expensive suburbs in the largest regional areas. The other two entries are Lorne on Victoria’s Surf Coast ($767,500) and The Hill in Newcastle ($735,000). The most expensive houses within those regions not detailed are: Mount Gambier SA ($222,000), Wannanup WA ($526,000) and Blackstone Heights Tas ($360,000).

The most expensive units are found in Newcastle East with a median price of $760,000. The Gold Coast again dominates the list of most expensive units with seven of the 10 most expensive median prices. Meanwhile, the other expensive unit locations are found in Newcastle with two of the ten and Geelong with the remainder. In those regions not making the list of the 10 most expensive suburbs for units the most expensive suburbs are: Mount Gambier SA ($154,000), Halls Head WA ($290,000) and Launceston Tas ($352,500).

These results show that opportunity for investment in the large regional areas of the country is abundant. The results also highlight that offerings in these areas cater to all tastes with opportunities for high quality properties and significant opportunity for affordable purchases.

Source: Property Pulse www.rpdata.com