‘People just love it’: The Melbourne suburbs no one wants to leave

The suburbs where Melbourne homeowners are loath to part with their properties range from tiny, esoteric locales to prestigious inner city postcodes.

More than 150 suburbs have recorded fewer than 50 house sales in the 12 months to March, creating a tough environment for hopeful buyers.

They range from the inner-east’s classic if-you-know-you-know neighbourhood of Deepdene (19 sales in the 12 months to March), and areas with low levels of freestanding houses, such as Burnley (14) and Cremorne (32).

The suburbs are too tightly held to calculate a statistically robust median house price. Domain researchers only calculate medians if 50 or more sales take place over a year.

The figures come as owners have been hesitant to list their homes for sale over the past year amid economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, putting further downward pressure on the number of listings in already small neighbourhoods.

Cremorne resident Bella Anderson has listed her home for sale, and it’s the only house on the market in the suburb at the moment.

Bella Anderson says her neighbourhood is being developed, which is why there are so few houses for sale. Credit: Chris Hopkins

She said there were few houses for sale in the area because they were largely being developed.

“Little houses just get bought up and, before you know it, half a dozen houses are gone and all there is a new commercial building,” Anderson said.

In some cases, houses in Cremorne had been knocked down and rebuilt as long but tall luxury homes, and Anderson hoped the home she’d shared with her late husband would have a similar fate, despite its business zoning.

“Both houses [either side of mine] are about five storeys high with roof gardens. I thought that it’s perfect for some kind of intentional community,” she said. “You don’t need a car in Cremorne and you don’t need one for every bedroom.”

Anderson says Cremorne is surprisingly walkable, and she often takes her dog, Lola, for a walk in the nearby botanic gardens. Credit: Chris Hopkins

Anderson thought that instead of a single residence, the site could be used to create several loosely connected units which could become home to a multi-generational family or group of friends.

Marshall White listing agent Abby Innes said the mix of businesses and residences created a fun vibe for those who lived there.

“It’s a little bit of an industrial area, so it’s a bit edgy and cool. It’s got warehouses and historical buildings and it’s got a great vibe about it,” she said. “I think Swan Street is very cool now and Church Street has a lot of great restaurants that are only a moment away.”

Melbourne’s other tightly held suburbs include prestigious Kooyong (nine sales), East Melbourne (21) and Princes Hill (27).

McDonald Upton Real Estate director Sheryl Upton had a rare listing in Princes Hill, and said the reasons homes rarely came up in the neighbourhood were fairly simple.

“It’s like any area that’s tightly held,” she said. “People just love it.”

Upton said the suburb had been well-designed during the late 19th century, and was pleasant to live in so its residents were usually reluctant to sell.

“In the heart of Princes Hill it’s very, very quiet,” she said. “Despite being surrounded by Royal Parade, the cemetery road, Lygon Street and Brunswick Road, it’s actually almost silent in there.

“[Residents] just don’t leave.”

Innes said suburbs like Deepdene, Kooyong and Cremorne were small, and deprived of attention by their larger neighbours.

“Because they’re small, tiny suburbs, they don’t get spoken about as much,” she said. “Toorak, Armadale and South Yarra, they’re seen as the prestige suburbs. But Kooyong, Cremorne, they’re tucked out of the way and forgotten.

“There’s less houses in those spots too. They’re the littler suburbs.”

Houses rarely changed hands in these areas, too, Innes said.

“Kooyong and Deepdene are the family areas where people want to be close to the schools,” she said. “They’ll be there for 20 years while the kids go to school, then they’ll love it and downsize and stay in the area.”

The Demographics Group co-founder Simon Kuestenmacher said this was often the case in small, exclusive suburbs.

“Australians like to stay in the family home and houses often will only enter the market when the last parent dies,” he said. “They won’t have much new housing stock [being built] so the existing stock stays in the hands of whoever owns it.”

Because of this, Kuestenmacher said most owners in this category of tightly held suburb were likely to have been residents for decades.

“Traditionally speaking if you look at a place like Princes Hill, it’s old money that sits in families,” he said. “If you own a plot of land there you’d have owned it for the last 60 years.

“You’d be stupid to sell it because it’d have been making you money for years.”

Other areas such as Caulfield (49 sales) would have just slipped under the 50 sale threshold because of the low number of properties listed, Meridian Real Estate owner Phillip Georgiou said.

“It’s larger and not a pocket suburb. They’re so tightly held in these areas, and they’re full of families,” he said. “Caulfield is the peak of an area where families want to be.

“When there’s not enough stock on the market, their home suffices, so they’re just not selling their home.”