Bicton with a median house price above $1 million has been revealed as Perth’s most undervalued suburb

Bicton, with a typical house value close to $1 million, has been revealed as Perth’s most undervalued suburb. Though east coast investors are raiding Perth’s south-east corridor where house prices are still well below Perth’s median of $585,000 recorded by REIWA, a new report by DSR Data has shown the cheapest areas don’t necessarily represent the best value. The exclusive data, which identified the most undervalued and overvalued suburbs using a range of metrics including supply to demand ratio and neighbouring values, also highlighted Karrinyup and Duncraig — two other areas with typical house values around $1 million — among the city’s most undervalued pockets. Tuart Hill and Edgewater, suburbs with more modest home values of $537,000 and $669,000, rounded out the top five undervalued city spots. Meanwhile, Murdoch was the most overvalued, followed by Beckenham, with a typical house value of just $556,000. DSR’s analytics use ‘typical house value’ rather than median house price when crunching data. And though Bicton’s median house price of $1.275m more than doubles Perth’s overall median, DSR expert Jeremy Sheppard said a suburb’s potential for strong capital growth depended on more than just affordability. “When interest rates are going up, there is this push to affordable property, because people are priced out of the more expensive market so it makes sense that there is a lot of appeal but it’s not always the case that if you buy cheap, you’ll end up with a better deal,” he said. Georgina Sullivan, who recently purchased a family home for just over $1 million in the riverside suburb, discovered it offered much more bang for the buck than neighbouring areas. They moved from an apartment in Claremont to a townhouse in Bicton in 2021 and fell in love with the area so much they upgraded to a family home closer to the river in August. “I grew up in Mosman Park, so my parents are nice and close — they’re just across the bridge — and obviously I love Mosman Park, love Cottesloe, love what they have to offer, but they’re definitely outside of our current price range as a young family,” she said. “Bicton ticks so many boxes in terms of lifestyle — you’re right on the river, you’re a five to 10 minute drive from the beach, you’ve got all these wonderful parks and we had our first baby last year so we’re really also now starting to enjoy the family-friendly side of Bicton as well.” Despite only buying their townhouse in 2021, Ms Sullivan said they made a good profit selling it just over two years later. “The growth that we saw even on that property alone is just crazy,” she said. “I think more and more people are starting to hear about it and it’s not going to be our little protected pocket for much longer.” Selling agent Todd Grierson, of Yard Property, said Bicton had a strong community with generations of people who have grown up there. “I’ve been selling in the area for 25 years and most people probably couldn’t tell you where it is — but they know where East Fremantle, Attadale and Applecross is — but it’s probably got the nicest stretch of water along the Swan River,” he said. Mr Sheppard said the data compared values with those of neighbouring suburbs within about 10km and also considered value growth of surrounding areas. Generally suburbs cheaper than adjacent areas that had experienced less price growth were considered undervalued, particularly if they had a high demand-to-supply ratio. “We use this demand and supply ratio for our clients, who are property investors. They’re looking for that next surge of growth to happen and this is our algorithm to pick those sort of markets,” he said.