The 40 most affordable suburbs near your capital city

At the height of the property market in 2009, finding a home in a reasonable condition and close to popular city centres was quite difficult.

Three years on, and with the onset of weaker market conditions across most capital cities, RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher has excellent news for buyers looking to snap up a bargain.

Mr Kusher has assembled a swatch of where buyers can source a house or unit that is located 20km or less from the CBD of each capital city and where the median price of a house is lower than $450,000.

The analysis also includes units the median price is now lower than $350,000.

Australia's most affordable near-to city suburb for houses is Herdsman Cove in Hobart which is located 16kms from the Hobart city centre and comes with an affordable median price tag of just $138,000.

Look up properties in Herdsman Cove, Hobart

Mr Kusher said that while our more expensive cities offer less of an opportunity to snare a bargain priced property within a 20km radius of the respective city centre, by doing some homework he said that these bargains can still be found.

The good news to come from today's analysis is that for price-sensitive buyers, 34.8 per cent of suburbs within 20km of a capital city centre now have a median house price below $500,000 and for units the figure is even higher at 73.6 per cent.

Using a median house price as a guide, Mr Kusher noted that the most affordable suburbs are located more than 10km from the city centre with the exceptions being the flood-affected suburb of Rocklea in Brisbane and Risdon Vale in Hobart.

He said that the most affordable median house priced suburbs within 20km of the city centre also tend to be found in select council areas and regions.

Around the capitals, today's results show that the most affordable suburbs in the Sydney area are in Parramatta and Bankstown while in Melbourne, Hume and Brimbank made the list.

Hot properties in and around Parramatta, NSW

In Brisbane a selection of suburbs in the city's south and west dominated the list (see table) while in Adelaide, Salisbury and Port Adelaide were the stand outs.

In Perth, the Swan and Gosnells council areas were where the cheapest suburbs were found.

While the cheapest median house prices within 20km of a capital city centre are found within Hobart followed by Adelaide and Brisbane, Mr Kusher said that prices tend to be much higher in Sydney and Canberra.

Across the unit market there are also some fairly clear trends, however, Mr Kusher noted that the most affordable suburbs tend to be a little closer to the city centre than they were for units.

An interesting finding was that 10 of the 40 suburbs listed as the most affordable across each capital city and are located less than 10km from city centres.

For units, the Brisbane suburb of Woodridge offered the best value for money. Located just 19km from the city centre, the median unit price in Woodridge is an affordable $190,000.

Check out the properties in Woodridge; Brisbane

In closing Mr Kusher noted that across individual cities the proportion of homes priced below $500,000 less than 20km from the city centre are quite varied, particularly for houses.

Only 3.7 per cent of suburbs less than 20km from the centre of Sydney have a median house price below $500,000 and the figures are also relatively low in; Melbourne (21.7%) and Canberra (25.6%).

"These results highlight both the relatively high cost of houses in these cities and subsequently densification of inner city areas is occurring," Mr Kusher said.

"For units, 42.5% of suburbs within 20km of the Sydney city centre have a median price below $500,000 while in each other capital city more than 65% of suburbs have a median price below $500, 000."