Just my two cents, I think the south western corridor has great potential. Maybe not necessarily Point Cook though with they’re overpriced new houses but other existing pocket suburbs in and around there such as Altona Meadows, Hoppers Crossing, Laverton, Werribee.
And I can vouch that it is only a 20 min drive to the CBD via the West Gate Freeway most times of the day. As for during peak hour, well almost any middle/outer ring suburb will take 40-60 minutes to get to the city -not just the west. Try the Monash – parking lot from 8am -9am, Eastern, Tulla, – all the same when its peak hour. But any other time its a dream run. I bought a 3 bedder house for around 200k a year ago, 10 minute walk to a Zone 1 train station. Where else can you get that in Melbourne? rents well, 20-30 minute train ride to the cbd depending if you get an express train or not. The raaf bases are both very quiet dormant bases these days with little training going on there so not sure how you’d go with defence housing.
Cheers
Sheree