Hazelmere, WA 6055

Hazelmere is a place where you can get larger blocks of land (200 sqm and up) with exceptional access to the city - less than 20 minutes by car, and a very efficient local train service. It's far enough out of Midland to enjoy peace and quiet, but close enough that all of the amenities are just a short drive.

This is the kind of place where there's room to have a vege patch and some chickens, a nice big shed, you can store a boat, and have space for the kids to run around and explore. A great lifestyle so close to the city.

It's worth noting that the area is likely to change over the next 5-10 years, if the proposed re-zoning goes through. A large proportion of the suburb is zoned 'residential redevelopment', which actually makes it quite difficult for people to develop, because all of the different owners would need to create a coordinated plan for it. The proposed re-zoning will give a number of areas the opportunity to build additional houses on their lots at the equivalent of R25 and R35 coding (depending on the location of each property). The result will be that there will probably be a lot of much smaller lots around the place, and the prices will probably go up a bit as well. If you want to see which areas are likely to increase in their density, (or whether a particular property is likely to have subdivision opportunities in the future, you can check the maps from the Swan Council from their September 2013 meeting here: http://www.swan.wa.gov.au/files/bd758b93-1b53-48aa-b892-a24600a3e91f/b3-4att.pdf

We recently bought a place in Hazelmere. It's a very small suburb that a lot of people don't know about. As a result, the crime rate in Hazelmere is one of the lowest in Perth according to the stats, which matches with the experience of the people I know who have lived there for a long time. It has quite a country feel to it, with most properties on bigger blocks which I think has contributed to the low rate. This is likely to change over the next 10-20 years though, the council is in the process of putting in place a subdivision plan that will see a lot of Hazelmere properties able to be subdivided into smaller lots.

Access to both Midland and the city is brilliant, road options include Guildford Road, or the bypass and new Great Eastern Highway, and most parts of Hazelmere are walking distance (under 1.5km on foot) to train stations that provide a direct link to the city. It's a short five minute drive from most residential spots to the centre of Midland for a diverse range of shopping - Midland Gate covers off a lot of retail and cinema options, and West Midland also has bigger stores - Harvey Norman, Good Guys, big camping and kitchen stores and the like.

The new Midland Health Public Campus and St John of God Hospital is being built on the doorstep of this suburb (less than 1.5km for most properties), so access to health will be excellent, but this is still a year or two from completion. As a result of the hospital, there is also road investment planned (underpass to get across the rail line) that will further improve the access from Hazelmere to the services in Midland.

In terms of resale value, I think that Hazelmere has the opportunity to get quite a boost in values if the council decides to increase the zoning on properties. In addition, the completion of the new hospital and activation of the pedestrian precinct around it, should increase values. Additionally, there are few areas that offer the bigger lot sizes that are characteristic of Hazelmere, only 25 mins from the Perth CBD for the price range you find here.

Interestingly, most people living in Hazelmere own their own home, only 17% of people living in Hazelmere are renting compared to 28% across the Perth metro. I think it's because it's a nice place to live, so people stay there themselves rather than renting places out. So, all in all, I think - great place to live now with all the convenience of Midland but with more space and less crime, and great opportunity for price growth into the future.

Hazelmere is a small suburb with access to Midland for amenties and shopping. I rented here for a while and I only found it by accident driving the 'long back way' home from Midland shops one day. After going past the brickworks, all of a sudden there is a suburb. It looks and feels like little country town to me - the untidy verges and generally older houses on the 'outside' of the suburb just seem to remind me of that type of environment. But, once you get into the few inner streets you can see that there are some pretty nice houses on big blocks and it feels like a bit of country in the city because there is still a bit of open space around - soon to be filled in with houses I am sure. I was hapy to live there and would love to again - if I could be in one of those nice new houses!