Investors returning ‘in droves’ to outer-western Sydney, with granny flat appeal: HTW

Small investors returned to the Sydney property market in "droves" in 2012, with their focus being the previously unfashionable but fast-expanding outer-western suburbs, according to Herron Todd White.

In its 2012 year-in-review wrap, valuers at Herron Todd White say their predictions about the north-west Sydney market made in February were “mostly on the money.

“The small investor returned to the market in droves in 2012, especially in the west. This helped prop up the 'old' first-home buyer’s market.

“There was a continued 'granny flat' trend in the Penrith and Blacktown council areas. Investors are increasingly looking for higher returns and the dual income stream offered by purchasing a basic three-bedroom dwelling and building a granny flat to the rear has proved most popular," says HTW in its December wrap.

Recent sales of houses with granny flats in the outer west include this five-bedroom house with a self-contained brick granny flat plus 1 ½-car garage on Farmview Drive in Cranebrook near Penrith, which sold for $455,000 through Ali Khanchedar of Southlands Estate Agents Penrith.

The house last sold for just $69,000 in 1987.

Khanchedar estimates it could earn weekly rent of $700 equating to a healthy yield of 8%.

In October, Mina Khanchedar Julie Stinson also from Southlands Estate Agents Penrith, sold this four-bedroom house for $393,000 on Henderson Crescent, Jamisontown, noting that it has “plumbing for potential granny flat as well as a carport”.

The 1980s-built house last sold for $265,000 in 2001.