Report reveals top suburb picks around Australia as housing market cools

The housing market downturn will bring opportunities for those keen on snapping up a property. Here, agents reveal their top picks.

As homebuyers brace for more interest rate rises, buyers agents have revealed the top suburbs in which to snap up an investment property.

While some borrowers may be spooked by rising rates, the expected cooling of the housing market will likely bring opportunities for investors keen to exploit that fear, according to BuyersBuyers, a national network of buyers agents and advocates.

NSW is tipped to bounce back in early 2023, especially for properties under $1.5 million, CEO Doron Peleg said.

This would coincide with the state’s stamp duty reforms for first homebuyers from January.

The property market’s recovery would be driven from the entry level prices upwards, BuyersBuyers’ investor report for 2022-23 predicted.

Top NSW suburb picks include Charlestown in Newcastle, with a median house price of $874,000, Albion Park in Illawarra at $921,000 and Ulladulla in Shoalhaven, coming in at just under $1 million.

Further interest rate rises are expected. Picture: Brendon Thorne / Getty Images

Extended lockdowns and Covid-19 restrictions disrupted the Melbourne market over the last two years and residents made a beeline north to Queensland.

But the market’s “relative underperformance” meant there were attractive deals for investors looking to take advantage of lower prices.

A house in the Geelong suburb of Belmont could be snapped up for a median price of $811,000, while nearby Highton was around $1.024 million.

In Melbourne’s north, Glenroy had a median price of around $909,000 while in Reservoir, expect to shell out $1.025 million.

Some investors were also looking at units in Melbourne, after a decade of underperformance, for around $560,000 in Springvale, $580,000 in Glenroy and $661,000 in Pascoe Vale.

Less market competition worked in buyers’ favour, agents said. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Meanwhile Queensland, which has undergone the fastest net interstate migration in history, has top opportunities to buy in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, the report said.

“Price growth has been strong over the past 18 months in Queensland, so investors need to be discerning, buy carefully, negotiate hard and take a long-term view, perhaps out to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics,” Buyers co-founder Pete Wargent said.

The median house price for Southport in the Gold Coast was just shy of $860,000.

In Brighton in Brisbane’s north, expect to shell out $875,000 while in nearby Aspley, expect to pay around $942,000.

The NSW market is tipped to bounce back in early 2023. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Meanwhile, some Adelaide beachside suburbs offered attractive prices for investors, compared to the larger capital cities, Mr Wargent said.

Top suburbs for investment buys included Kilburn, with a median house price of $472,000, Christies Beach, for $460,000 and Modbury, $491,000.

Mr Peleg believed the second half of 2022 would prove an attractive time for buyers to make a long-term investment, with far less competition in the market and mortgage rates still relatively low, historically.

Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has warned Australians should brace themselves for higher interest rates now the pandemic is over.

CommBank has tipped a further rate rise in August, with the size depending on incoming inflation data in Australia, due on July 27.

If the data was strong, it raised the risk of another 50 basis points lift to the cash rate, the bank’s senior economist, Belinda Allen, said earlier this month.