Winners’ podium: 2023’s best suburbs for property investors revealed 

It was a year of two halves.

Property investors started their 2023 journey with turbulence. 

The median dwelling price in Australian capital cities started the year in the midst of a record slump, tumbling nearly 10% between April 2022 and January 2023.

But all that seems like a lifetime ago; today, the nation is reveling in record high property prices. 

As always, the bear-to-bull turnaround was felt more in certain pockets of riches – at least when it came to house prices. 

CoreLogic has revealed 2023’s ten top performing suburbs across Australia for property investors, with one achieving a 34% increase in house prices.

Whether you’re after capital growth, have a focus on houses or units, or simply wish to realise the highest rental yield on offer, you’ll want to know about these suburbs and how they performed over the 11 months through November.

Top ten suburbs for house price growth

"Housing activity rebounded through early 2023 as buyers took advantage of lower prices,” CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said.

“However towards the end of 2023 affordability constraints have become more pressing, skewing demand towards the middle-to-lower end of the pricing spectrum.

"Certainly, lower-priced housing markets such as Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide saw very resilient conditions through the national downswing period, and strong annual growth through to the end of November."

Despite such patterns, the top performing market for house prices last year was located in regional NSW, squished up against the ACT border. 

There, Tralee saw house values soar 34.2% in the first 11 months of 2023, outpacing numerous high-performing suburbs in Perth.

So, where in Australia didn’t house prices have a great year? 

Hobart suffered against a market downturn, with the value of houses in North Hobart, Taroona, and Blackmans Bay falling 13.9%, 13.8%, and 9.3% respectively.

Outside of the Apple Isle, house prices in Victoria’s Rochester, Lorne, and Mount Helen and NSW’s Mullumbimby each fell between 26% and 13%. 

Top ten suburbs for unit price growth

Meanwhile, Greater Brisbane saw a significant increase in unit prices across many of its suburbs. 

Indeed, the value of units in Slacks Creek, located nearby Logan, topped the nation when it came to growth.

Unit prices in the suburb increased 27.4% in 2023 to a median value of around $341,500.

Looking out to the regions, units in Emerald, Queensland saw values increase by a fifth this year. However, those in Mudgee, NSW suffered an 11% fall.

Top ten suburbs for rental yields 

Finally, and perhaps surprisingly, investors realising the highest possible rental returns in 2023 appear to have been those who own properties in far-off regional WA.

When it came to rent-to-cost ratios, Kambalda East, in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, took out the gold spot. 

Investment properties there typically boasted a 15.5% rental yield this year, according to CoreLogic data.

In silver was neighbour Kambalda West and in bronze was Queensland’s Collinsville.

Kambalda (East and West combined) is located around 60 kilometres from Kalgoorlie and is home to around 2,500 people and 1,260 private dwellings, as per the 2021 Census. 

Image by Joshua Leong on Unsplash.