Elizabeth takes the crown in investment hotspot report

Looking to buy an investment property but don’t know where you should look? The northern suburbs isn’t a bad place to start ...

Landlord Lian Ching and tenant Jodie Curtin outside Mr Ching’s Elizabeth South investment property. Elizabeth South was identified as the best suburb in SA in which to buy an investment house. Picture Mark Brake

South Australia has been identified as one of the nation’s best states to invest in this year in an exclusive new report.

According to The Advertiser’s Make Your Move Report, powered by PropTrack, eight of the top 20 suburbs the report identified as great places to buy an invest house in 2022 are found in South Australia.

Elizabeth South was singled out as the best suburb in the country to invest in, with prices increasing 46 per cent over the past 12 months and returning a median rental yield of 6.4 per cent.

Proving the strength of Adelaide’s northern property market, Elizabeth East, Elizabeth Grove, Elizabeth North and Oakden were also identified as investment hotspots.

Harcourts Sergeant head of property management Vanessa Bekker said Adelaide’s northern suburbs had long been seen as solid investment prospects.

“I dealt with one in Elizabeth Park that sold for about $330,000, the landlord spent $35,000 on it and we’ve just rented it for $420 per week,” she said.

“Our listings go at the first open – on a recent listing we had 59 applications within 24 hours of me listing it – it’s absolutely crazy.”

Aside from its affordability, Ms Bekker said easy access to the city, quality amenities and significant recent and planned infrastructure upgrades were fuelling investment in the northern suburbs.

“I think they’re fairly safe long-term options, to be honest,” she said.

Three of Adelaide’s southern suburbs also made the top 20, with Hackham West, O’Sullivan Beach and Hackham claiming third, fourth and seventh place respectively.

The suburbs were ranked through analysis of three key metrics – price growth, rental yield and demand per listing, or the number of potential renters looking in the suburb per available rental.

The report analysed suburbs that had a minimum of 30 sales for both the past financial year and the 2020/2021 financial year, and more than 10 rentals on realestate.com.au over the past 12 months.

While no SA suburbs made the national top 20 for units, Klemzig in Adelaide’s northeast was identified as the top place to invest in a unit.

Realestate.com.au economist Angus Moore said, nationally, the data reflects a hunger for space, driven largely by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

“Larger houses have seen their prices grow faster than smaller ones and houses have significantly outperformed units, and that trend has been really beneficial for Adelaide in particular, but Brisbane as well, given their relative affordability to Sydney and Melbourne and the fact that you can get more space there in a way that it’s very difficult to do in Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Moore said.

Rental is safe as houses
RM Williams production line worker Lian Ching, 40, who recently bought an investment property in Elizabeth South, said buying in the northern suburbs was a no-brainer.

Mr Ching, who lives in nearby Salisbury East, bought the home in January and said he was a huge fan of the City of Playford.

“I really like this area, the Elizabeth city upgrade is fantastic and I think it’s a fantastic suburb,” he said.

“I like the northern suburbs, I’ve lived here for 13 years – it’s great.”

Mr Ching said he hoped the investment property would allow him to save for his own home in four or five years.

Landlord Lian Ching and his Jodie Curtin outside Mr Ching’s Elizabeth South investment property. Elizabeth South was identified as the best suburb in SA in which to buy an investment house. Picture Mark Brake

“Next time I want to build my own new house, and once I build it I will live in it,” he said.

His tenant Jodie Curtin, 53, said she was overjoyed to be able to call the property home.

“I had been looking for about four months for a property and I probably applied for over 70 homes, and this was my only successful application,” she said.

“It’s been really stressful, especially when I have four girls living with me and two of them are very high needs.
“I had happy tears.”