Property research website LocationScore has identified Kanahooka as being among the top holiday hotspots for property investment.
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The new research scores each suburb monthly out of 100 using eight key indicators that measure the level of supply and demand, as well as growth prospects.
Houses in Kanahooka scored 78.
“(This is) no doubt due to its Lake Illawarra location as well as being within commuting distance of Wollongong – and even Sydney if you're keen,” LocationScore research director Jeremy Sheppard said.
Mr Sheppard said their metrics to gauge supply and demand within a market included auction clearance rates, how long properties stay on the market, and how many people are searching for properties versus how many properties are available for sale.
“If properties are being snapped up really quickly, and that's the case in Kanahooka... The days on market is typically three or four months for most markets Australia-wide, but it's down to five weeks for Kanahooka," he said.
“That’s obviously a big indicator that demand exceeds supply.
“You've got a bunch of buyers, they're all competing for the same property, they've learnt that if they're a little bit tardy they're going to miss out. So they put in strong offers fast.”
He also cited their 'Online Search Interest' metric, collated from property portals such as Domain, which for Kanahooka houses is 132.
“This means arguably you've got 132 people per property searching,” he said.
“It's not entirely accurate because sometimes the same user can get on doing the same search the next day, or possibly from a different ISP.
“It is only an approximate thing... But 132 is sky high.”
According to The Domain Group, the average age of Kanahooka residents is 60-plus.
While 51 per cent fully own their own home, 36 per cent have a mortgage and 13 per cent are renting.
According to Domain, the median price for a three-bedroom house in Kanahooka is $578,000, with 56 sold this year.
They spent an average of 38 days on the market.
Mr Sheppard also noted Unanderra as a key suburb, partially due to its auction clearance rate for houses of 83 per cent.
“That’s really high," he said.
“Anything above 70 per cent, we'd say that's probably a hot market.
“A rate of 83 per cent, that's equivalent to like Sydney during the middle of the boom. So that's definitely a hot market.”
He also said Unanderra was a standout suburb as it also had a “very low” percentage of ‘Stock on Market’ - how many properties are on the market as a percentage of all the dwellings in that area - of 0.26 per cent.
Mr Sheppard said the overall research showed that the mantra that holiday homes were a bad property investment was not always true.
“Ordinarily I’d advise investors to buy in great growth locations, not simply a place they'd like to live in or where they like to go on holiday,” Mr Sheppard said.
“According to LocationScore, though, there are holiday locations around the country that stack up investment-wise, including having much more demand than supply, which is essential for capital growth.”
