After four years of booming house prices, Sydney is no longer hailed as the best place to buy and invest in Australia, according to a survey of 1000 property investors by the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA).

With the median house price in Sydney hitting $1,021,968, many investors now see it as too expensive.

“Affordability will always be a key factor for investors and right now Sydney is hitting price points that are unprecedented,” said Buyside property investment specialist Josh Masters.

The majority of investors now prefer buying in Brisbane, which has been ranked as the most attractive place to buy by 50% of the survey respondents. This was followed by Melbourne at 20%, Adelaide at 9%, and Perth at 4%.

“Property investors are becoming more savvy. Many of them continue to look outside of our biggest property markets – Sydney and Melbourne – which are coming close to the peak of their cycles,” said PIPA chairman Ben Kingsley.

“The two key reasons that Brisbane still attracts investors, in spite of concerns around oversupply, are affordability and the potential for attractive yields.”

According to AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver, the shift from Sydney to Brisbane is just “common sense,” given that “investor rule number one is to buy low and sell high.” He expects Perth and Darwin to also be in investors’ radars as “prices are back to where they were last decade.”