List of bad suburbs in WA

3 of my Westminster tenants (in 2 villas) are FIFO. The villas are close to Reid Highway so they are at the airport in 20mins.

But back to the original question. Bad suburbs can have good returns but it is important to find good tenants. Factor in the risk vs the more affordable price of the property.

I have 3 properties in Westminster which is a so-so suburb but excellent rental returns and I'm planning for long term growth as the area is 10km to the city, close to light rail plans and easy access to many amenities.
 
Piara Waters in itself is not a bad suburb although there is a lack of childrens playground. Other suburbs sharing the same postcode worth having a look at includes harrisdale, heron park and perhaps Forresdale.
 
10 Cheapest Suburbs in Perth

Some of these have already been mentioned, but these are the top 10 cheapest suburbs in Perth (median under 300K) and may help.

Crime rate may be an issue with some of these areas, but I think most of these areas over the last 10 years have performed very well. My pick would be Cooloongup (Rockingham), has beach, rail and high rents.
Maddington would be good if you can get a house on development block.

Medina
Brookdale
Calista
Armadale
Parmelia
Camillo
Cooloongup
Leda
Orelia
Maddington
 
I saw Perth crime suburb statistics conducted by Rac regarding insurance claims recently although I can't find any link. That would help you if you could find it. The only one I could find was 2009.
 
INVSTOR said:
I saw Perth crime suburb statistics conducted by Rac regarding insurance claims recently although I can't find any link. That would help you if you could find it. The only one I could find was 2009.
Click to expand...

Think you can find it on the WA police website. Haven't looked for a while so I am sorry that I can't give you the link.
 
Well I don't think you can categorise whole suburbs as good or bad. There seem to be good and bad areas in each suburb (not withstanding the blue chip suburbs of course). I live in Mandurah and you can get multimillion dollar houses on the canals or on the northern beaches (San Remo, Silver Sands etc) and nasty housing commission literally 10 - 15 minutes drive away. I am in central Mandurah and have not had any problems in the area at all - close to train station (but not too close :)) and equally close to some really choice beaches.

Its the same where my partner lives in High Wycombe - long considered a lower class suburb but some really nice areas particularly closer to Maida Vale and some not so nice with housing commission. Very close to airport too which is a bonus for FIFO.
 
Mt Richon

Can anyone give advice on Mt Richon and surrounding areas? We're looking for a larger block to build and retire, preferably within 30 minutes of Freo.
Thanks
Shirley
 
Suburbs like Maddington are not so cheap anymore. Median prices has gone past 325K, I reckon. The house prices at Langford has gone up by 50K within last year. Langford gave enough equity to buy our first IP. I wouldn't say it is bad suburb to live either now.

When the price of a suburb goes up, because of that more people sell, and a new set of people come in. Suburbs with lots of sales will change, won't they?
 
Hi Singo

Suburbs change all the time and when developers move in this can certainly drive the prices north, just takes a little time, so if you get in on ground level and understand the beast it could be a winner.

For prices to continue to rise it really just comes down to supply and demand, which is what we have been experiencing in the Perth market recently, not enough stock.

MTR
 
I've looked at Ashfield and Lockeridge in the past, with a view to long term development of a larger block, while renting the existing house in the interim. Both a bit dodgy to live in but definitely sleepers in terms of capital growth.
 
Hi Jen,

Funny you mention those two suburbs!

Both Lockridge and Ashfield have seen great growth, and continue to have great potential in my view, both for development, growth and rental yield. I chose both due to proximity to city, rail, airport (5 min on a good run from Ashfield), etc along with rezoning/infrastructure growth potential and the fact they were significantly cheaper than surrounding areas. (My assumption being due to greater homes west presence and general perception of socio-economic conditions etc at the time). To buy a similar property in Bassendean for example (not more than 200-300m from my place in Ashfield) was something like 50-60k higher. In my limited experience, these are the sorts of things I look for.

I have an IP in Ashfield (on 535sqm - no dev potential) that has appreciated significantly (based on bank valuation) with a few cosmic renos in the two years I have owned it, and my Lockridge IP (on almost 900sqm) which has great dev potential, has grown about 40k with no improvements in less than 18 months. We bought this one specifically for development potential, and are currently looking to buy out the neighbour, which would give us around 1700sqm on R35 assuming current zoning plan. We almost bought another dev site in Ashfield, but were moving back to Brissy at the time, and just couldn't fit it all in.

We have had "long term" tenants in both (18mths or greater), both taking great care of the house and paying rent on time. In our experience the quality of neighbourhood doesn't necessarily reflect the quality of tenant.

We are really happy with both investments!

Cheers!
 
Being an eastern stater and not knowing the stigma I basically invested in those two suburbs also. Also, nearby, I sold my Eden Hill property and was going to buy back in but market has gone nuts - up about $80,000 in 8 months. :(
 
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Hahahha! I could try to blame autocorrect, but in the interest of honesty Ill cop to that being a plain bollocksup - what you get for typing a post at work!
 
There is BIG money to be made in some so called 'bad' suburbs if you know what to look for.

Early on in our IP journey we decided to target and purchase in areas that had recently been approved for or were in the planning stages for gentrification.

We looked for 4 flags - those being where the Government, Commercial, Retail, private sectors are injecting money.

We discovered this ultimately uplifts & beautifies the area resulting in people liking the look thus moving in and creating demand.

We have found this to work very well if you are looking for short to medium term capital growth so as to leverage against and build your portfolio faster.

For example, one suburb/area we purchased in was Midland as it ticked the 4 flags as listed above.

The main one being the WA government allocating $300 million & forming whats known as the Midland Redevelopment Authority to plan the works & oversee the area's transformation.

Today, some 13 odd years later, our IP held there has since over tripled in value along with its associated rental yield.

My point is, when first starting out if you want to leverage against CG so as to build your portfolio faster, look for today's ugly duckling area that's to be turned into tomorrows swan, hold there for the long term and you will rewarded very well.

I hope this provides some food for thought.
 
Last edited:
WilliamB said:
Hi Jen,

Funny you mention those two suburbs!

Both Lockridge and Ashfield have seen great growth, and continue to have great potential in my view, both for development, growth and rental yield. I chose both due to proximity to city, rail, airport (5 min on a good run from Ashfield), etc along with rezoning/infrastructure growth potential and the fact they were significantly cheaper than surrounding areas. (My assumption being due to greater homes west presence and general perception of socio-economic conditions etc at the time). To buy a similar property in Bassendean for example (not more than 200-300m from my place in Ashfield) was something like 50-60k higher. In my limited experience, these are the sorts of things I look for.

I have an IP in Ashfield (on 535sqm - no dev potential) that has appreciated significantly (based on bank valuation) with a few cosmic renos in the two years I have owned it, and my Lockridge IP (on almost 900sqm) which has great dev potential, has grown about 40k with no improvements in less than 18 months. We bought this one specifically for development potential, and are currently looking to buy out the neighbour, which would give us around 1700sqm on R35 assuming current zoning plan. We almost bought another dev site in Ashfield, but were moving back to Brissy at the time, and just couldn't fit it all in.

We have had "long term" tenants in both (18mths or greater), both taking great care of the house and paying rent on time. In our experience the quality of neighbourhood doesn't necessarily reflect the quality of tenant.

We are really happy with both investments!

Cheers!
Click to expand...

That is a huge block size in Lockridge, hope you get the other, fantastic strategy, land bank ready to develop and the land was cheap;)
 
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