Revealed: The 14 suburbs where average house price discounts are lowest

Sydney’s most famous beachside suburb, Bondi Beach, has ranked as the second best performing and most resilient suburb in Australia, according to figures compiled by RP Data.

The eastern suburbs location is the only the prestige suburb among the 14 suburbs to have an average discount of less than 3.2%, with the list dominated by a mixed bag of Sydney suburbs and Canberra suburbs.

Bondi Beach has a median price of $1.5 million, making it the most expensive suburb on RP Data’s list of best-performing suburbs. The off-the-plan Bondi Beach market faces a big test next month with the release of 85 apartments in The Pacific development, which could have been expected to secure a virtual sell-out in boom times.

Spence, a suburb in the Belconnen district of Canberra, is the most resilient suburb, with an average discount of just 1.5%. Properties in Spence take slightly longer than those in Bondi Beach to sell, at 61 days.

Spence was gazetted in 1972 and is named after William Spence, one of the founders of the Australian Workers’ Union, with all streets in the suburb named after trade unionists.

All the other suburbs on the top 14 list are priced under $1 million, with the cheapest being Macgregor, also in the Belconnen district of Canberra, gazetted in 1971 and named after Sir William MacGregor, a former governor of Queensland.

The list was compiled by RP Data for the Australian Financial Review and looks at sales for the year to June.

Houses and apartments in Bondi Beach are on average discounted by just 1.8% and take less than two months to sell.

The other Sydney suburbs on the list are Camperdown (four kilometres south-west of the CBD), Strathfield South (14 kilometres west of CBD) and Peakhurst Heights (22 kilometres south of the CBD).

Australia’s 14 most resilient suburbs

Source: RP Data/Australian Financial Review

The full list, published in the Australian Financial Review, records that the best-performing suburbs are more likely to be more affordable ones further out from the city.

“Affordability in the market is really an issue,” RP Data head of research Tim Lawless told the AFR.

“These are areas that have a strong foundation to their marketplaces. These are really markets driven by vendors [sellers], not buyers. They’re not budging on prices, and buyers are meeting their price expectations.”

The best-performing Melbourne suburb is Croydon Hills in Melbourne’s outer north-east, with an average discount of 3.6%. Properties take an average of only 40 days to sell.

Flemington, just four kilometres north of the CBD, is Melbourne’s best performing inner-city suburb with an average discount of 4% and taking 40 days for a property to sell.

For advice on navigating hotspots, download our free eBook: Tools for Getting Through the Hotspot Maze. This article first appeared on Property Observer.