Top 20 Aussie suburbs where you can buy property for $300k

There's no need to settle for a poky studio even in one of the bigger cities. If you know where to look, you can find great value with the promise of strong growth.

It's always interesting to watch the expression on people's faces in Sydney and Melbourne when you talk about being able to buy great properties at this price point.

In most cases they think all they can get for their money at best might be a one-bedroom studio in one of the bigger cities.

This is so far from the truth and, as demonstrated, you can even buy houses in some of our capital cities, and our data is suggesting this might be worth considering!

Methodology

For property buyers and investors alike, it's crucial to find markets in which demand exceeds supply. But how is this done?

To determine the LocationScore for each suburb and property type, we combine eight metrics: auction clearance rates, days on market, vendor discount, renter proportion, vacancy rate, rental yield, percentage of stock on market, and online search interest.

Some metrics are more important than others, so we allocate each one an importance rating. Then we combine all eight metrics based on their relative importance into one overall score.

This top 20 lists contain the top markets as ordered by LocationScore for each price range. It's these markets that, in our view, have a better chance of experiencing immediate capital growth than markets with lower scores, indicating declining or soft demand.

Historically, 83% of the top 20 LocationScore markets have outperformed the national average growth rate over the next three years. What is also interesting is that quite often the LocationScore top 20 had growth rates that were double the national average, reinforcing the fact that the law of supply and demand influences price movement in property.

Glenorchy, Tasmania 7010 - houses

This suburb is about a 20-minute drive north of Hobart's CBD. Its LocationScore was 82 at the end of June 2018.

The LocationScore is considered "good" if it is over 62 and "excellent" if above 77.

The LocationScore for Glenorchy houses has risen from the mid 60s about three years ago into the low 80s now. The rise has been an almost straight line with very little volatility.

The standout statistics that have led to such a high score include fast selling times, low discounting and high yields.

Three years ago it typically took about four months to sell a house in Glenorchy. Now it takes less than four weeks.

Discounting is around 0.25%. That means sellers will turn their nose up at anything but the most generous-sounding offers.

The yield is over 5.5% and the vacancy rate is a miserly 0.33%. With interest rates being so low, many investors are likely to have a property that is comfortably cash flow positive.

One negative about Glenorchy, though, is the higher proportion of renters to owner-occupiers at 43%. The country-wide average is under 30%. It's nothing alarming but keep in mind that some streets may have trouble spots.

Whittington, Victoria 3219 - houses

This suburb of Geelong is about an hour and 20 minutes from Melbourne's CBD.

The house market at the end of June had a LocationScore of 82. From mid 2015 to mid 2017 the LocationScore has been under 75. It's only been in the past nine months that things have started to really heat up.

None of the metrics were truly outstanding for June but almost all of them were comfortably better than the nationwide averages: quick selling times, low discounting, very healthy yield and a low percentage of stock on market.

Auction clearance rates are a bit patchy, with low volumes recently. But they have tripled from the same time two years ago to the end of June, to an impressive 84%.

Online search interest has risen from about 30 a year ago to nearly 150 now. That's more than double the Australian average.

The percentage of stock on market has been quite volatile for the past three years. This is normal for thinly traded markets where supply is tight. Stock levels have more than halved from three years ago, now down to 0.36% - well below our benchmark of 1%.

However, Whittington does have a higher proportion of renters to owner-occupiers than is considered "good". Ideally, we want it as low as possible but 30% is the pass mark and Whittington's is sitting at over 40%. We wouldn't have cause for alarm unless it was as high 60%. Finding good streets shouldn't be a problem.

Berriedale, Tasmania 7011 - houses

A little further north of Hobart than Glenorchy is the suburb of Berriedale.

At the end of June, Berriedale's house market had a LocationScore of 82.

Prices have grown by about 25% in the past 18 months with the LocationScore up from the mid 70s. Although the growth has taken a breather for a few months, the supply and demand metrics indicate there's even more to come.

Houses are selling in about a month on average. Go back just two years and they were taking four months.

A vacancy rate of 2% to 3% is considered a balanced market. But the vacancy rate for houses in Berriedale was less than 0.5% at the end of June 2018 - no room at the inn.

This helps to explain yields approaching a dizzying 6%.

Stock on market is chronically low at 0.42% and the number of online searches conducted in June reached fever figures at 180 per property available.

Just a word of warning about the Berriedale housing market, though. It only just squeezed into consideration for this report due to a lower than ideal statistical reliability score of 60%.

Get stories like this in our newsletters.