Melbourne tops national list of top cities for suburbs with potential for growth

FOUR Melbourne locations have been named among some of the nation’s best “ugly duckling” areas with potential to become “real estate swans”.

A quarterly report on affordable suburbs where property values could increase significantly in the future has identified suburbs within Casey City and Dandenong City, as well as new infrastructure hubs around Epping and Sunshine.

Battler suburbs including Berwick, Cranbourne, Dandenong, Noble Park, Epping, Craigieburn, Sunshine and Deer Park are all named in the report as likely to benefit from a range of infrastructure improvements.

Terry Ryder, founder of Hotspotting.com.au which compiled the report, said Melbourne was among the nation’s best placed cities for affordable suburbs to boom.

“Melbourne has many well-placed affordable suburbs with good growth prospects, more so than Sydney which is both more expensive and more expansive (greater distances to the affordable areas),” Mr Ryder said.

“In most of our major cities, the more affordable areas tend to have better capital growth rates long-term than the so-called ‘prime’ suburbs.

“So investing in well-located and well-serviced affordable suburbs can be a win-win-win situation for investors: cheaper prices, better rental yields and better prospects for long-term capital growth.”

Mr Ryder said infrastructure developments were typically the key to affordable suburbs transforming.

Josh Allison, director of Harcourts real estate agency in Mill Park, said the area around Epping had seen significant infrastructure development with a local push underway to expand public transport in the region potentially extending this in the future.

He said investors had also begun to appear in the suburbs once dominated by first and second homebuyers.

“Prices in Bundoora and Preston have increased to the point where you get a lot more value for money up the road here in Epping,” Mr Allison said.

“I think it’s still an undervalued area, and there’s a lot more room for it to grow.”

Mr Allison noted surging auction numbers in the outer-north Melbourne suburbs were an indication the market was increasingly strong in the area.