Investors ask: Suburbs set to take off
Q. How can you identify an area that might be about to take off, and does getting down on the ground give you a better idea of what’s happening in a suburb?
A. First and foremost it's all about infrastructure.
You really want to understand what’s going on in an area and what’s about to happen. What is going to drive continual growth in a certain location?
You want to be asking questions like, why do people actually want to live there? And why will people want to continue moving into this location and paying potentially higher prices?
I also think it's really important to get out there and walk the beats and actually understand/get a feel for what's going on in the location. Because when you can walk down certain streets and get an absolute buzz for it, you can get a feeling that there's some movement in the market, there's a bit of culture in the market, there's a lot of activity going on, etc.
Those are the key things to focus on – get a feel for what's going on in the area, and infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. This is going to be the key to what will drive growth.
Todd Polke, NSW head coach, Positive Real Estate