Terry Ryder, who runs hotspotting.com.au, has named the Wheatbelt town as one of his annual top 10 “cheapies with prospects”.

It’s the only town in WA to make the list.

With a median price of $160,000, a long history as a major regional centre, a wind farm starting up near the town and the re-opening of a gold mine at Westonia, there were solid prospects for Merredin, Mr Ryder said.

“It’s very rare to find a place like Merredin in WA that’s so cheap,” he told WAtoday.com.au.

“It’s been quite solid in the past but there had been really nothing to drive its prices until this new activity.

“Real estate agents are already starting to feel the impact.”

Local Elders Real Estate agent Will Morris agreed.

“We’ve definitely seen demand,” he said.

“It’s built up progressively, which has been good.”

Mr Morris said he had received calls from two major property investors since Mr Ryder’s list went public.

While the official median price was in the mid $100,000s, statistics could be misleading because of the volume of sales.

“The average price around here is about $220,000, which is still affordable,” Mr Morris said.

There was also a big demand for rentals.

“The problem really is there’s no one based here who does property management on a big scale. “We send them down to Toodyay, which is probably closest, but there are probably only two places for rent here right now.”

Mr Ryder said he “went off” WA as a place to invest in property during the last boom, but became more bullish last year, nominating Geraldton, Bunbury and Albany as worthwhile locations.

He said with affordability problems in the big cities and along the coast, bargain hunters should search inland.