How Oran Park has transformed from raceway to investor’s delight
Up until recently, this now-bustling mini metropolis was a quiet, rural corner of Sydney famous for its speedway; now it’s one of Australia’s fastest-growing suburbs, and the boom isn’t over yet.
Twice it has hosted the Australian Grand Prix, and its last V8 Supercar race was in 2008, but once the area’s only drawcard, the Oran Park Raceway is now an afterthought for the thousands of visitors and residents who flock to the suburb daily.
The south-western Sydney suburb was recently one of four NSW suburbs named in the highly coveted Smart Property Investment Fast 50 ranking for 2024.
The report and ranking combined the insights of a 14-strong investment expert panel and recent housing performance drawn from open source data and aim to give unparalleled insight into the Australian suburbs that are set for future growth.
According to the report, Oran Park home prices surged 25.7 per cent in the 12 months to January 2023, even as the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monetary tightening policy, among other headwinds, sent national property prices in the opposite direction.
As a result, the bustling region’s median house price at the beginning of 2023 was $1.081 million. By comparison, in September 2021, when Oran Park was included by InfoTrack as one of the nation’s most popular suburbs for first home buyers, the suburb’s median home value was $790,000, highlighting the region’s rapid growth in the last 18 months.
Kevin Brogan, national director, group risk and compliance at Herron Todd White, said Oran Park is one of the “few examples that show if a master plan is done right and a community lifestyle is created, the area will flourish and price increases will follow”.
He heralded the region’s master plan as “one of the best-performing new estates in south-western Sydney,” adding that “the master plan creates an all-inclusive community lifestyle”.
Such is the comfort afforded by the region’s master plan, which is littered with thousands of newly constructed homes, facilitating rapid population growth of approximately 4,700 people between the 2016 and 2021 Census.
Aside from the thousands of existing and projected homes lying within the region, Oran Park is also home to a state-of-the-art town centre, several new schools, 148 hectares of open space, and two dozen immense playgrounds, parks, and recreational areas that boost the region’s appeal as a haven for families young and old, while several major motorways and public transport networks ensure the region is easily connected to every corner of Sydney, as well as Wollongong and beyond.
Zooming out to the wider Greater Western Sydney region, the area is “well and truly earning its status as the location of Sydney’s second CBD”.
According to the NSW Department of Planning, the entire region is set to grow by almost one million people — or 46 per cent — over the next two decades.
A recent Smart Property Investment article highlighted the 10 infrastructure projects that are pushing Western Sydney property prices through the roof.
Adding to the region’s appeal for investors is its potential for solid capital growth and rental yields, which average 8.6 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively, while median rents in the area are a healthy $650 per week.
And with the region touting a younger population than other parts of Sydney and NSW, with large numbers of children and people of working age, as noted by the NSW Department of Planning, Oran Park is set to be a suburb of choice for years to come.
To see which other Sydney suburbs made the Fast 50 2024, click here.
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