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Loan writers reveal pros and cons of working in nation's top suburbs

by Kylie Purcell10 minute read

Brokers in Australia’s best-performing suburbs have been “incredibly active” but feel concerned about first home buyers being priced out of the market.

A report by Residex has revealed Australia’s top performing suburbs in terms of property price growth over the past quarter.

The data shows that nine out of 10 of the leading suburbs are in Sydney, with Beaumont Hills topping the list for housing, while Wollstonecraft gets first place for apartments.

Alphington near Melbourne’s CBD was the only suburb outside Sydney to make the housing list, while Balwyn and Box Hill came in at eighth and ninth for apartments.

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Gavin Ross, director of Premium Mortgage Solutions near Beaumont Hills, said that the recent surge in house prices had made the past year “incredibly active”.

”This will be my 12th year as a broker, and I’ve never seen a busier period before,” he told The Adviser.

“It’s active for a lot of different reasons. People are coming in and wanting to buy investment properties. Others that already have properties are choosing to reinvest or refinance.”

Broker Geoff Mckenna in Alphington said property growth in his area had kept business strong, but had made life tough for first home buyers.

“In terms of my client base, it’s good because people have got equity. And I’m finding that the customers I’m getting are refinancing for better rates. Or people are buying second properties or upgrading,” he said.

“But it’s those second home buyers, or people wanting to do business, that are really benefitting from it. Not those first home buyers.”

Tim Boyle of SMSF Property Finance, who deals with customers in the same area, said it is very difficult to find a house for less than $1 million.

“I’ve had clients that want to buy into the area and they just haven’t been able to. So that’s the downside. But on the positive side, I’ve got people who live around here and they’re freeing up equity and buying investment properties.”

The Residex report showed that the highest rated suburbs for housing were Beaumont Hills, Eastwood, West Pennant Hills, Homebush, Marsfield, Ryde, Denistone, Lawson, Alphington and Katoomba.

The top 10 suburbs for units were Wollstonecraft, Milson’s Point, Plumpton, West Busselton, Chatswood, Werrington, Collaroy, Balwyn, Box Hill and North Sydney.

The only suburb to make either list outside Sydney and Melbourne was West Busselton in Western Australia.

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