Most affordable inner-city suburbs

Most affordable inner-city suburbsNew RP Data shows it’s still possible to find affordable suburbs within 10 kilometres of Australia’s capital city centres, but that increasingly, potential buyers are likely to be priced out.RP Data’s Weekly Property Pulse, which looks at the country’s most affordable suburbs for houses and apartments within 10 kilometres of capital city CBDs, shows that inner-city prices look set to continue to rise. With potential buyers facing high demand for housing close to city centres and inherently low levels of supply, more are needing to consider buying further away. Even apartments in some inner-city areas have restrictive price points.Topping the most affordable list for houses and apartments in each of the capital cities is: Wolli Creek and Eastlakes, respectively, in Sydney; Bellfield and Carlton in Melbourne; Rocklea and Tingalpa in Brisbane; Dry Creek and Kilburn in Adelaide; Glendalough for both houses and apartments in Perth; Clarenden Vale and Glenorchy in Hobart; Malak and Alawa in Darwin; and Page and Hughes in Canberra.The RP Data results show a large variance in median house prices in suburbs within a 10-kilometre radius of the city centre.Sydney’s Wolli Creek is expensive at $710,303, whereas the median house price in Melbourne’s Bellfield is cheaper at $533,252. In every other capital city except Darwin, the starting point for a house is significantly lower again.RP Data says that while many of the more affordable suburbs in the 10-kilometre zone are considered less desirable than other inner-city suburbs, they remain close to the city and have potential for urban renewal in coming years.There is noticeable divergence in median apartment prices, too, with Adelaide’s fifth-most affordable suburb (Kilburn, at $349,925) still substantially cheaper than Sydney’s most affordable suburb (Eastlakes, at $452,776).According to the report, the lower median price point of apartments, compared to houses, is contributing to the demand for apartments in the inner city and driving the construction of apartment buildings in suburbs close to the city.RP Data Home Value Index results for July 2014 show that combined capital city home values increased by 10.2 per cent in the previous 12 months, with the greatest annual increases recorded in Sydney (14.8 per cent) and Melbourne (11.0 per cent).