Where you can still buy a house within 5km of a CBD for less than $1 million

Property prices may be falling across the nation but if it’s an inner-city house you’ve got your heart set on, they’re yet to fall to a level most buyers can afford.

New analysis by Domain has found there are no suburbs with a median house price under $1 million within five kilometres of a CBD in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Canberra.

There are just 25 suburbs in Australia with a median house price under $1 million within five kilometres of a CBD and all of them are in Perth, Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin.

The most affordable is West Perth, just 1.48 kilometres from the CBD, which has a median house price of $485,000, followed by Highgate, just 1.9 kilometres from Perth’s city centre, with a median of $496,500. Other suburbs like East Perth, North Perth, Leederville and Mount Lawley are all within three kilometres of the city centre.

SOLD - $830,000

29 Violet Street, West Perth WA 6005

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“We’re a more attractive proposition than the eastern states,” says Paul Middleton of The Agency.

“We expect to be inundated with immigrants in the next couple of years. The amount of work we’ve got, coupled with the cost of housing; it’s an attractive proposition for anyone wanting to move to Australia.

“Yes, Sydney is a magnificent city, but you know your house will cost you twice as much to live further away from the city.”

The type of house you’ll get in Perth’s CBD fringe is more likely to be pre-war and on a small block of land, Middleton says, citing a four-bedroom c1898 bungalow on 232 square metres of land in Perth City as a great example.

“You go slightly further out and that’s when you’ll get houses on more land,” he says.

SOLD - $805,000

134 Summers Street, Perth WA 6000

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For investors, rental yields in these areas of Perth are strong. The latest Domain Rent Report shows the median rental yield in East Perth is 6.11 per cent, 6.07 per cent in Perth City, 5.98 per cent in West Perth and 5.47 per cent in Highgate.

A rental yield of about 4-5 per cent is considered healthy.

“The general feedback is that the investors are coming back into the market for those reasons. The positive growth scenario, the high rents and, relatively speaking, the low cost coming in and buying,” Middleton says.

“If you’re sitting in the eastern states considering investment, you’d have to look at Perth quite favourably for all those reasons.”

Houses within that coveted five-kilometre ring are also attainable in Adelaide, where suburbs like North Adelaide (median price $960,000), Mile End (median price $795,000) and Richmond (median price $635,000) are all less than four kilometres from the city centre.

In Brompton, about 4.1 kilometres out, the median house price is just $637,000. It’s one of Adelaide’s newest hipster neighbourhoods, says Scott Ellis of Harcourts Tagni.

He’s selling a two-bedroom c1910 house that has been fully renovated and extended, asking $639,000-$689,000.

SOLD - $691,000

33 First Street, Brompton SA 5007

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“I’ve had people who’ve moved back to Adelaide have a look at this one and say it would easily go for over $2 million in Sydney,” he says.

“I had a lady from Sydney who was gobsmacked when she saw the price on this one. Brompton represents fantastic value – it had been one of the forgotten inner-city suburbs but it’s now quite trendy, a very fast up-and-coming area.”

Ellis says the value for money in Adelaide, even after the massive growth in house prices during COVID, was still evident, with buyers showing up from regional Victoria, Alice Springs and Sydney.

“Whereas in other cities you might not even get a one-bed unit in a location this close to the city, here in Adelaide we are literally 50 metres to a train line, which has a beautiful walk and bike path on it, you can walk to four different restaurants 150 metres away, or walk to the entertainment centre, or hop on a tram and get to the beach.”

Stuart Park and Fannie Bay in Darwin all have house medians under $1 million and are within five kilometres of the CBD, as do Lenah Valley, New Town, Bellerive and Moonah in Tasmania.