'A high cost for liveability in ACT': The most affordable and liveable suburbs in the capital

Canberrans are paying ‘a high cost for liveability’ according to new research from PRDnationwide.

The research looked at the most affordable and liveable suburbs within 10 kilometres of the city centre.

Liveability is based on a number of factors, including a low crime rate, an unemployment rate lower than the state average and amenity within a  five-kilometre radius – both basic amenity and hospitality. Future development was also taken into consideration.

But to find suburbs that fulfilled both the affordability and livability criteria for houses and units, a premium of 94 per cent had to be added on to the average ACT loan of $411,894.

“For us to be able to tick as many liveable aspects as possible we have to go above and beyond the ACT metropolitan median price,” said PRDnationwide national research manager Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo. 

The report also had to compromise on livability factors, with some suburbs having an unemployment rate higher than the ACT state average of 3.9 per cent.

“Even though [the unemployment rate] is higher than the ACT average, the unemployment rate in the suburbs are lower than previous years,” said Dr Mardiasmo.

For units, Bruce was named the most affordable and liveable suburb in Canberra. However, the northside suburb has an unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent.

According to the report, the median unit price for Bruce in the 12 months to September 2018 was $381,000, and the total amount of future development equates to $2.5 million.

This was followed by Coombs, Dickson, Gungahlin and Watson, which rounded out the top five for units.

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For houses, Holder was named the most affordable and liveable suburb in Canberra.

The Weston Creek suburb has a median house price of $640,500 and an unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent.

Another Weston Creek suburb snagged the second most affordable, with Weston’s location to Cooleman Court, medical centres and schools boosting its ranking.

Watson, Bruce and Nicholls also made the top five.

Dr Mardiasmo attributed Canberra’s high liveability cost to a changing demographic.

“Canberra has traditionally been a public service-centric area, and it’s only now transitioning to more of a commercial hub,” she said.

“It fell short on liveability because prior to that everybody concentrated on particular pockets of governments workers who may not live there for a long time, so there was no need to establish good infrastructure.”

According to the latest ABS data, Canberra’s population growth rate for 2017 was 2.2 per cent.