Positive gearing suburbs in Australia’s hottest property market
Strong rents easily cover repayments in 57 suburbs of Western Australia
3 min
Western Australia remains Australia’s strongest property market, with home values up 23.2% to a median price of $751,000 in Perth and 14.9% to a median of $528,000 in regional Western Australia over the year to August. This is the highest rate of annual capital growth among Australia’s capital cities and regional areas, according to Proptrack data.
Rents have also risen more in Western Australia than anywhere else. The latest available Proptrack data covering the March quarter shows a 15.5% annual increase in rents in Perth and a 14.3% uplift in regional Western Australia. The state has also seen the strongest growth in property investment lending as investors from all over the country seek to buy in the booming market. Proptrack economic analyst Megan Lieu said investor lending in Western Australia was 48% higher in the June quarter compared to the same period last year, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Rapid increases in weekly rents have led to more suburbs across the country offering positive gearing opportunities for investors. Proptrack has identified 140 positive gearing suburbs nationwide where rental returns entirely cover the investment loan repayments for investors.
“Rent growth has … outpaced home price growth over the last 12 months, making conditions increasingly favourable for investors,” Ms Lieu said. “While many of them are benefiting from the current market, those with properties in select suburbs are not only seeing their rental income cover their mortgage but also deliver positive cash flow.”
The data shows Western Australia has 57 positive gearing suburbs, which is the most of any state and territory. Examples of these suburbs are listed below. The data assumes a 30-year loan at an 80% loan-to-value ratio (LVR) with an interest rate of 6.52%.
Positive gearing suburbs in Western Australia
Baynton
Baynton is in the Pilbara mining region and is the best positive gearing suburb in the state. Investors can cover their mortgage repayments with $2,100 per month to spare, according to Proptrack data. A typical house in Baynton costs a median of $682,500 and fetches $5,600 per month in rent. This is more than enough to cover the monthly loan repayment of $3,458.
Kambalda West
Kambalda West is in the Goldfields-Esperance mining region of Western Australia. A typical house costs $180,000 and rents for $1,520 per month. The mortgage costs $912 per month, which gives investors surplus cash of $607 per month to help cover other expenses like council and water rates.
Port Headland
Port Hedland is the second largest town in the Pilbara mining region and another strong positive gearing suburb. The median house price is $730,000 and the rental return is $4,900 per month. The investment loan repayment costs $3,698 per month, leaving the investor with $1,201 per month in their pocket. Investors on a lower budget can buy an apartment for a median of $474,396, which will rent for $3,200 per month and easily cover the mortgage of $2,403 per month.
Cable Beach
In the Broome region of Western Australia, Cable Beach sits on a 22km stretch of white sandy coastline along the Indian Ocean. The suburb was named after a telegraph cable that was laid between Broome and Java in 1889. Cable Beach houses have a median price tag of $670,000 and rent for $3,930 per month which is more than enough to cover the loan repayment of $3,394 per month.
Perth CBD
Investors can purchase a unit for a median of $465,000 and rent it out for $2,480 per month in Perth CBD. While the loan repayment gobbles up most of this, costing $2,356 per month, it is a notable rarity for a CBD suburb in the centre of an Australian capital city to deliver positive gearing.
Mosman Park
Mosman Park is an affluent suburb along the Swan River in Perth. An Australian house price record was set here in 2009 when mining magnate Chris Ellison bought a waterfront mansion for $52.5 million. Property investors can achieve positive gearing in this suburb with apartments. The median unit costs $380,000 and commands $2,000 per month in rent. This covers the monthly mortgage repayment of $1,925.
Somerville
Somerville is a positive gearing suburb in the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the state’s Eastern Goldfields region. An investment unit here will cost a median of $282,000 and command a monthly rent of $2,440. This easily covers the loan repayment of $1,428 per month, with more than $1,000 to spare.
For Central Element, the start of work at Pearl represents another step in the company’s growing eastern suburbs pipeline.
All three vehicles will form part of a broader charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.
4 min
For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.
The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.
“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.
That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.
Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.
The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.
“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”
Collecting instead of decorating
Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.
Collecting is less conclusive.
A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.
That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.
A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.
The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.
For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.
Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.
A design perspective shaped by travel
International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.
Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.
More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.
“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”
Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.
Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.
A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.
The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.
Designing the complete experience
FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.
The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.
That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.
Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.
The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.
Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.
The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.
A home that can keep changing
The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.
Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.
“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”
That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.
The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.
This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.
Fact box
- Designer: Jack Freeman
- Role: Founder and managing director
- Practice: FREEMAN & CO
- Base: Australia, with international projects
- Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean
- Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts
- Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation
- Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials
- Website: free-man.co
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