Gotta put in my pennies worth. I currently live in NSW but lived in Perth thru the 80s. Unfortunately I wasn’t one of the many people who invested correctly back then! However, I certainly seem to have done so now. Two years back I bought an IP in Cooloongup (for those who dont know this is the Rockingham area). I knew the area well (in fact it was bush when I lived there). Knew it was close to shops, schools, beach and transport (new rail line going up not far away). Spoke to RE agents and family and friends a lot before purchase. Other local areas were cheaper, but didn’t have the same appeal. Eventually bought it site unseen for about $134K. Since then it has been mentioned regularly in API magazine and has grown by about 29%. It has only been vacant for about two weeks in that time.
I am thinking of buying another this year, possibly in cheaper neighbouring suburbs, or even down Bunbury way. So you can see my preferance is for the southern areas. Having said that, my brother lived in Balga in the 80s. I wouldn’t have lived there myself or bought property there. Now I wish I had! I gues the moral is you can’t really pick the suburbs that are going to perform you need to look at all the factors but deals are availabel just about anywhere!