House prices 'boosted by nicer place names'

Suburbs with attractive sounding names attract more interest from homebuyers than their plainer sounding neighbours, a report has found.

RP Data 2009 figures revealed that properties in suburbs ending with waters, park, point, hills or heights could be worth more than three times as much as other residential districts, the Daily Telegraph reported.

For example, in Sydney the median price for the popular Glenmore Park estate in 2009 was $410,000 compared with a median price of $340,000 in the nearby Penrith estate.

The Glen Alpine estate also recorded a median of $490,000, compared with a median of $390,000 for the neighbouring Campbelltown estate.

Peter Phibbs of the University of Western Sydney Urban Research Centre told the newspaper that suburb names are a clever marketing hook designed to attract buyers, adding: "They like a snappier name. With it, you are differentiating yourself from the surrounding suburbs, you are trying to differentiate from a reputation which might not be earned."

Price fluctuations across suburbs may encourage Aussies to compare home loans in search of the best deal for their needs. Last month, research by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority revealed that the value of bank home loans jumped 17 per cent to $910.5 billion in the 12 months to December 31st as a result of government stimulus measures for first-time buyers.

This article is brought to you by Mozo – Helping you compare home loans