The cheapest properties sold around Australia in 2019

A home in Sydney for just $175,000? Really? Yes! It is possible.

Just ask the first-home buyer who snapped up the property bargain of 2019.

He ended up with Sydney’s cheapest slice of real estate – a 25 square metre studio on the top floor of a four-level converted motel in Auburn – and he couldn’t be happier.

“He’s absolutely rapt,” says agent Themy Panagiotidis, director of LJ Hooker Auburn who sold him the deceased estate at 95 Station Road, in western Sydney, 18 kilometres from the CBD, in June. “It’s basically a room with a little kitchen and bathroom and is only 39 square metres, including the car space.

“But he’s a young guy who’s just moved out from living with his mum, and he may even rent it out in the future for $250 a week. And Auburn does offer you good value for money, easy access into the city and Parramatta and it’s not too far from the airport.”

A special Domain report on the cheapest home sales of the year in Australia’s capital cities is a revealing look at lifestyles on property’s lowest rung.

In Sydney, the next most inexpensive home of 2019 was much closer to the CBD, on Ultimo’s Broadway, a city pad handy to Central station. That was a 20-square-metre studio with a car space that sold for $186,000 in May, down from its first listing price of $218,000.

Yet Sydney’s cheapest still came in far above Melbourne’s bargain-basement sale – which was also Australia’s most cut-price home in a capital city for 2019. This home went for just $55,000, and it had two bedrooms, reverse cycle air conditioning, solar panels, a covered patio, ramp access, a front security door and sensors.

The only downside: it’s a demountable home located at the Melbourne Tourist Village at 37 Ardlie Street, Attwood, 18 kilometres north-west of the CBD, on land rented as part of the site fee of around $150 a week.

Mind you, the house, advertised as ‘ideal for singles, retirees, students, flight attendants and pilots as it is close to the airport’ also has the bonus of amenities, including an entertainment room, barbecue area and laundry facilities.

Raffaele Nicotera of Ray Biner Real Estate who sold it says he believes this type of cabin-villa could well become the affordable home of the future. “I think these homes are becoming more and more popular as you’re getting a two-bedroom home in a lovely pocket of a nice area where, just across the road on the same street, there are million-dollar homes,” he says.

“This one only took two weeks to sell as not many come up, with people living in them for up to 20 years. It was bought by a nice gentleman who’s had some difficult times, and this offered him some comfort and security.

“We also have people buying them for their parents as they’re low-maintenance on a good, secure site, and they can pop in and see them whenever they want.”

Another in the same village later sold for the same price, while the next bargain was in Footscray, where a studio apartment in a featureless block at 51 Gordon Street was bought for a mere $95,000.

That’s still big bucks, however, when compared to Brisbane’s best buy of the year: a studio in East Brisbane that sold for $62,500. Its downside? You can’t live there – since it was built under accommodation regulations, you can only let it short-term.

But the unit at 192 Wellington Road could still be a good property investment, says agent Bill Yapp of LJ Hooker Kangaroo Point. “It’s a studio apartment, but restricted to short-term lets only,” he says.

It came fully-furnished with a wall-mounted TV and basement car parking and is less than three kilometres from the city, and close to the ferry and buses.

The cheapest home in Canberra, by comparison, looks pretty expensive. That was a 32 square metre studio at Waddell Place, Curtin, that went for $157,000.

Billed as a great first home or investment just across the road from the shopping centre and buses, it also features a laundry shared with six other apartments in the same building.

Over in Perth, for about the same price, you could have bought a two-bedroom villa, with a private backyard and airconditioning, with nearly twice as much internal space. It had a good-sized living area and a dining zone, as well as the bedrooms and bathroom over its 61 square metres – perfect for singles, a couple or investors.

At 86 Westfield Road, Kelmscott, in Perth’s south-east, and within walking distance to a school and shopping centre, it was sold for $125,000.

Hobart’s cheapest home was a one-bedroom 45 square metre apartment in the northern suburb of Berriedale that sold for $102,500 in May this year, offering a gross rental return to investors of around nine per cent.

Yet possibly the best bargain of the year in any capital city in Australia was a three-bedroom semi-detached house on 542 square metres of land in Adelaide’s Elizabeth North. It was auctioned in November for just $80,000.

“But there’d been a fire, and it was pretty much burnt out,” says agent Ken Lofts of Harcourts Playford of the 83 square metre house at 44 Charford Street. “It was dishevelled and sold by the council because of unpaid rates.

“The people who’ve bought it say they’re going to repair it rather than knock it down and rebuild, but it’s still early days …”

Darwin also came out with one of the smallest outlays, with a one-bedroom studio selling for just $70,000 this year. At 52 Gregory Street in Parap in the inner city, it’s pretty much a hotel room.

But the cheapest properties were still out of the cities. The bargain of the year was a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Keith, in the south-east of South Australia, 200 kilometres from Adelaide.

Complete with airconditioning, an open lounge-dining area, a slow combustion heater and an enclosed yard, it sold for just $33,000 in July 2019. The only hitch? It’s subject to a Housing Improvement Order and is rent-controlled, with the rent set at $100 a week.