What it costs to live in the Perth suburbs where wellbeing is highest

The Perth suburbs with the highest levels of resident wellbeing offer access to nature or proximity to the city centre. But that wellbeing can come at a high price.

The Town of Cambridge, City of Perth, and City of Nedlands local government areas had the highest scores in Western Australia in the 2023 Cities and Regions Wellbeing Index released this month by SGS Economics and Planning, followed by Vincent and Subiaco.

Each region in the report was tracked based on its economy; income and wealth; employment, knowledge and skills; housing; health; equality, community and work-life balance; and environment.

The report does not encompass affordable house prices – the housing indicator looks at whether an area has affordable rentals, and its levels of homelessness and overcrowding. The income and wealth indicator considers house prices as a proxy for household wealth, as higher wealth contributes to wellbeing.

Separate figures from Domain reveal the median house price in the top-scored local government areas: Nedlands has the highest of the five at $2.075 million, followed by Cambridge at $1.7 million, Subiaco at $1.6 million, Vincent at $725,000 and Perth city at $630,000 as of the March quarter.

Greater Perth’s overall median house price is at a record high of almost $778,000.

SGS Economics and Planning senior associate Michelle Tjondro said the wellbeing index focused on objective factors such as access to healthcare, jobs and education.

It did not measure liveability, which includes subjective factors such as how many people in your peer network live nearby.

Even though many people’s wealth is stored in their housing, Tjondro emphasised that the report did not conclude that high house prices equalled higher wellbeing.

Instead, the report offers a prompt to consider how to make high-wellbeing areas more affordable, such as through improved housing supply, transport connections and investment in infrastructure.

And on the flip side, how to raise the wellbeing of more affordable areas, such as through policies that encourage more equal gender participation to reduce the gender pay gap, or reduce barriers to workforce participation among communities with a large migrant profile.

In the Perth metropolitan area, Rockingham scored lowest on the wellbeing index, closely followed by Armadale.

Strategic Property Group managing director Trent Fleskens said generally, West Australians valued a property based on its proximity to water, the city, activity centres and reputable public schools, in that order.

“Clearly, Nedlands, Perth and Cambridge local government areas offer all four of these in spades,” he said.

“One mitigating factor that will warp the median sales figures in Cambridge and Nedlands is they generally offer larger lot sizes, keeping sales prices higher.

“However, due to the above offerings as well as generally lower rates of crime, larger tree canopies, and wider streets, in general, we do see these LGAs housing those residents from the first quartile of socio-economics and socio-demographics more often than not, leading to higher sales values being paid.”

Fleskens said the challenge for the City of Nedlands and Town of Cambridge for the future was their ability to facilitate the downsizing of their ageing populations.

“Currently, with a large shortage of downsizer and affordable housing types, we are seeing a large number of young and older residents being forced out of their local area,” he said.

Ray White agent Laura Johns said convenience came at a cost.

“Properties close to transport, the city and shopping centres have historically attracted higher prices than properties in the outer suburbs. This isn’t just in Perth but applies to property all over the world,” she said.

“Schools are one of the main reasons buyers choose to purchase property in a specific area. This doesn’t only apply to public schools and catchments, it also applies to private schools. If families are paying a premium for their children to attend a private school, they often want to be close to the school.”

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