Property prices in inner-city Sydney will grow by 10% in the next 12 months, according to one local property expert.

Barry Goldman, principal of real estate agency Portfolio Realty, believes the current market provides buyers with the best market conditions in which to negotiate since the 1970s.

"The current property market is one of the best buyer's markets in the last 40 years, with great opportunities emerging, particularly through mortgagee sales, and with rents continuing to surge," Goldman said.

"The areas close to the CBD are like a pressure cooker, with a shortage of stock and strong demand, especially from professional people who are property savvy. Prices have not fallen there, and it is absolute rubbish to suggest prices will fall by 30% or more over the next few years, as some have forecast."

He added that while some outer areas of Sydney will continue to experience fallsin values over the next 12 months, prices across the city's metropolitan areas will grow 10%, with higher gains forecast in the CBD and Eastern Suburbs.

"I believe there will be an upward pressure on values very soon as interest rates fall, so the time is ripe to buy either apartments or houses," Goldman said.

Opportunities also exist in the outer suburbs of Sydney for investors to "pick up a bargain" with mortgage defaults, as these properties are often being sold at below replacement value, and Goldman believes that "lack of supply of new dwellings – especially as a result of the ridiculously high state government fees and charges – will guarantee price increases in the longer term".

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