One of Victoria’s most disadvantaged suburbs is being tipped as a canny investment buy this year in a national property report.
Albion is primed for growth, according to Your Investment Property Annual Suburbs Guide, which ranks the top 100 suburbs in Australia with the highest potential for capital growth and rental returns.
Factors, such as demographics, the local economy, capital growth potential, infrastructure development and affordability, influenced Albion’s inclusion at number 27 in the guide.
Albion was one of only 12 suburbs in the state to make the top 100. It and Avondale Heights were the only suburbs from Melbourne’s west that were listed.
Star Weekly revealed last December that Albion is Melbourne’s fourth-most affordable suburb for renters, based on a national report on rental affordability.
It found average rents are consuming about 17 per cent of the incomes of tenants in the area. Last June, a Jesuit Social Services report,
Dropping off the Edge, listed Albion among the state’s most disadvantaged suburbs.
Albion rated in Victoria’s top 20 for unemployment, and in the top 10 for long-term unemployment.
Meanwhile, Sunshine has also been tipped as a suburb to watch this year, shrugging off its down-at-heel tag.
While the suburb is being touted as the focus of SBS’s controversial reality TV program
Struggle Street, the Real Estate Institute of Victoria says Sunshine is proving attractive with both buyers and developers.
It says Sunshine still offers “very affordable buying”, with a median house price of $530,000 and the availability of larger land blocks.
Brimbank council is also working to make Sunshine one of the west’s major centres.
The recently approved Sunshine Activity Centre Zone is expected to trigger $1 billion in investment with the rezoning of 19 hectares of industrial land in the Sunshine town centre.
