Sydney's 50 cheapest suburbs from Newtown to Mount Druitt: Domain Group

Sydney’s property prices are $350,000 more expensive than three years ago, but there are still some desirable suburbs with homes priced under the $1,013,258 median house price, Domain Group data of the 50 cheapest suburbs in Sydney shows.

The most affordable suburb for apartments in Sydney is Carramar, 30 kilometres west with a median price of $329,000, while house hunters can look to Marsden Park, at $360,000.

Almost all of Sydney’s cheapest suburbs are west or south of the city and at a distance from the CBD, Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson said.

To buy a house without entering a million-dollar suburb, home buyers have to head more than 10 kilometres away from the CBD.

However with a budget half this size, it’s a 30-kilometre trek west for suburbs with median house prices below $500,000.

“Sydney is all about proximity to the city and first-home buyers wanting to buy an apartment for $500,000 would still need a deposit of $100,000 plus costs,” Dr Wilson said.

For apartments, the only option where the median price is below $700,000 within five kilometres of the city is Newtown, at $620,000. This is comparable to Rouse Hill and Quakers Hill, some 30 to 40 kilometres from the CBD where median prices are $625,000 and $635,000 respectively.

“If I was a first-home buyer I’d be saying ‘that’s not a bad deal’ [in Newtown],” Dr Wilson said.

But for those thinking Newtown is comparable to the Hills District, they’d need to think twice. The prices may be similar, but apartments on offer in the north west are “newer and bigger” while cheaper options in the inner suburbs usually need substantial renovation and are often small studios, he said.

Ray White Kellyville’s Sanjeev Kumar said first-home buyers were looking at the Hills District’s apartments as most “fit into the first home owners grant and new home benefits” with many options available on Rouse Hill’s Cudgegong Road and Rouse Road. 

But the inner west is increasingly at the top of first-home buyers’ lists, Aris Dendrinos, licensee in charge Richardson & Wrench Marrickville, said. Annandale, St Peters, Leichhardt, Marrickville and Stanmore also made an appearance on the cheapest suburbs within 10 kilometres of the city.

“Previously a poor cousin of the eastern suburbs and lower north shore, the [inner west] has now become a first-choice lifestyle for a growing number of young, upwardly mobile, white collar, urban professionals,” Mr Dendrinos said.

“In terms of purchasing opportunities for this demographic we are finding that they are mainly focusing on apartments as they fall in the affordable price category of $450,000 to $750,000.”

The median house prices for the inner west suburbs of Newtown and Enmore were also on the inner city’s most affordable list at $1.21 million and $1.26 million respectively.

Younger couples have also been looking at the inner west’s “cheaper houses in the $900,000 to $1.2 million range with the financial assistance of parents,” he said.

Starr Partners chief executive Doug Driscoll said it was no surprise the greater west and south west were more affordable, with most suburbs becoming cheaper further from the city.

“On the ground, we aren’t seeing many first-home buyers buying in these areas from the inner city because they would be moving their entire life away – their friends, family, work and social life,” Mr Driscoll said.

“What we are seeing though are more ‘rentvestors’, who are getting a foot on the property ladder with an investment property. They’re not owner-occupiers because they don’t want to live there, but they see the long-term benefits,” he said.

The south west corridor, including St Marys, are the “ones to watch” in the more affordable areas, he said, due to the construction of the airport at Badgerys Creek.