Melbourne’s bridesmaid suburbs revealed: where buyers can save more than $1m on a home

Just next door to some of Melbourne’s most prestigious (and expensive) suburbs are areas where buyers can find a home for half the price. SEARCH YOUR AREA

This two-bedroom home at 1/51 Devon St, Cheltenham on sale and has a price guide of $830,000 – $910,000.

Melbourne’s ‘bridesmaid’ suburbs where a home can be bagged for half the price of their flashier neighbours have been revealed.

Buyers priced out of Kew, where the median house price is $2.8m, can savemore than $1.5m on an average homeby looking across the Yarra River to Abbotsford, where the median house price is $1.285m, according to exclusive new data from PropTrack.

Bayside Brighton’s median house price is $3.235m, but just a 10-minute drive away is Ripponlea, where the median house price is half of Brighton’s, at $1,693,250.

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South Melbourne, has a median house price of $1.495m compared to Middle Park, just 2km away, at$2.505m.

Cayzer Real Estate Albert Park’s director and auctioneer Michael Szulc said there was no difference in lifestyle between Middle Park and South Melbourne.

“You’ve got the strip shops, eateries, and the [South Melbourne] market in proximity to both,” Mr Szulc said.

“You can still buy a little house in South Melbourne in the low $1 million range, and can get all that same lifestyle [as Middle Park].

“There’s less turnover in Middle Park whereas there’s a constant turnover of smaller cottages in South Melbourne.”

This two-bedroom home at 148 Pickles St, South Melbourne is on sale and has a price guide of $1,500,000 – $1,600,000.

The fully equipped kitchen has an adjoining dining and study nook.

The rear garden which has two entertaining decks as well as access to Little Boundary St.

PropTrackdirector of economic research Cameron Kusher said many of Melbourne’s most prestigious suburbs had tightly-held properties that people did not want to part with.

“If in that main suburb, there’s nothing coming online, then we might see more demand flowing to these suburbs where prices are significantly cheaper,” Mr Kusher said.

“You can potentially get a lot more for your money than you could if you were buying a similar property in the more-desired suburb or the higher-priced suburb.”

However, Mr Kusher said based on limited stock on the market overall, there could be more that buyers had to sacrifice than just location.

“The fact that there’s not a lot to choose from means that maybe people have to sacrifice on something, whether that’s property type … maybe you can’t get the house so you go to an apartment or a townhouse,” Mr Kusher said.

“Whether or not you want to be flexible is ultimately your own decision … it’s weighing up the costs and the benefits.”

This three-bedroom home at 17 Ashe Cres, Bellfield is on sale with a price guide of $900,000 – $990,000. For Herald Sun Real Estate

The combined living and dining zones have split system heating and cooling and polished timber floorboards.

Each bedroom is carpeted and the main has a built-in wardrobe.

Aspire Advocates director Nicholas Morrison said suburbswith themost demand often had the highest price per square metre.

“As you move out from those suburbs, you get more for your money,” Mr Morrison said.

“A good example would be an Armadale buyer looking in Caulfield North, even though they are only 100m away from Armadale, they’ll get much more bang for their buck,

“Tight budgets are dictating [a buyer’s] borrowing power as lending is tighter at the moment … people have much more firm budgets.”

Northeast of Melbourne’s CBD Eaglemont, has a median house price of $2,363,200, while less than 3km away is Bellfield wherethe median house price is $943,750.

For those looking for a home beneath $1m — instead of buying in Altona, southwest of the CBD that has a median house price of $1.15m — 9km away is Laverton, with a median house price of $601,000: more than $500,000 difference.

Coolaroo, Airport West, Briar Hill, Meadow Heights and Mill Park all have median house prices beneath $1m less than 20km out from the CBD.

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Originally published as Melbourne’s bridesmaid suburbs revealed: where buyers can save more than $1m on a home