The City of Gosnells is home to some of the best investment properties in Australia with five suburbs making the top 10 growth suburbs.
The list, compiled by realestate.com.au, showed Maddington was the second best growth suburb for houses under $400,000 within a 20 kilometre radius of the CBD with a compound annual growth rate of 4.1 per cent.
The median sold price for Maddington was $366,500.
Langford, Kenwick, Gosnells and Huntingdale also rated a mention in the top 10.
Mansfield Park in South Australia came in at number one.
Leahy’s Neighbourhood Realty director Bill Leahy said suburbs in Gosnells had long been overlooked despite offering solid investment properties.
“It’s really about the larger block sizes that people are able to get there because people are chasing those 700 to 900-square metre blocks and in Maddington blocks that size are affordable,” he said.
“It’s not just investors and first homeowners buying there either.
“I get a lot of second and third homeowners buying in Maddington, particularly coming from places like Byford because they’re tired of small blocks that are so far away from the city.
“I think we take that whole district for granted.”
He said his biggest advice to potential homebuyers was to buy an affordable house on a decent size block.
“Don’t over think it and don’t get too much advice because you may be able to find a house one person likes but it becomes harder to find a house two people like,” he said.
“When you add a third or fourth decision maker it can become impossible.”
City of Gosnells mayor Olwen Searle said the increase in house prices could be an indicator that the city was becoming more attractive as a residential choice for homeowners and investors.
She said the specific nature of housing stock provided was largely influenced by private developers but the city ensured a mix by allocating different residential codings to land throughout the district, with higher densities allocated closer to commercial and transport centres.
“The city has introduced a variety of new town planning policies and initiatives which have increased the development potential of land and have provided opportunities for redevelopment in the area,” she said.
“One specific example occurred in 2009/10 when the council progressed an amendment to the local planning scheme to rezone approximately 3600 lots across seven suburbs, five of which appear in the above list.
“It is also an objective of the city to promote the growth of commercial centres that serve our older suburbs.”
She said this was important because commercial centres often provided attractive amenities to prospective homeowners and investors.
Mrs Searle said the city expected to see a continued uplift in the value of residential land following commercial investment in the Maddington and Gosnells town centres.