crime there is off the planet (that brounleigh towers thing isnt going anywere and the surrounding getto is blight on the face of Perth...possibly the worst streetscape I have seen here) and the student share houses (complete with dead gardens or paved verges) continue to proliferate. the very high state hosuing and social problems attached are also a problem.
it could be ok, but IMO too many negatives and too much risk
Although Brownlie Towers is in Bentley, I'd have thought the stigma would have stopped there and not affected St James at all (just like it would not affect Wilson which is closer to Brownlie on the other side of Manning Rd).
Having said that, how bad is Bentley?
Admittedly Brownlie Towers has a reputation for suicides but people are doing stuff to improve it eg
http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?docid=3708 . And I never had any problems when catching the bus from there.
Surprisingly the primary school catchment for Bentley is poor (but not poor poor like country areas)
http://www.myschool.edu.au/Main.asp...WA G0000005041&DEEWRID=9859&CalendarYear=2009 (though I don't know how things add up to 120%!). Bentley state primary school's results are OK and the Islamic school rates very highly according to the stats.
But I agree that Curtin is such a magnet for overseas students that the area always will be a transient rental area without neat gardens or owner-occupiers doing value-adding. That is unless Vic Park becomes trendier (it's got a long way to go but it's different to 15 years ago).
If this happens St James would be the first to gentrify, followed by Bentley much later (as a precedent, look at Karawarra now compared to 20 years back). And suprisingly Bentley does have a dress circle of big houses on a hill with city views around Bunning Park (just 100m west of Brownlie Towers).
Melbourne suburbs like Richmond, Collingwood, Williamstown, South Melbourne and Flemington have similar (if not larger) complexes to Brownlie Towers. If buying nearby they'd put me off as well, but their presence doesn't seem to have stopped those suburbs becoming expensive.
(Brownlie Towers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brownlie_Towers_Bentley,_Western_Australia.jpg )