Melbourne house price records: Every suburb with a new benchmark set in 2021

A sizzling pandemic property market resulted in 115 metropolitan price records being smashed in 2021. SEE THE FULL LIST.

Rebecca DiNuzzo

3 min read

December 26, 2021 - 12:00AM

News Corp Australia Network

No. 4 Mernda Rd, Kooyong, set a new price record for the blue-chip suburb when it sold for $8.6m in March.

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More than 100 suburb price records in greater Melbourne were obliterated in 2021 as the city sweltered through a booming pandemic property market.

Despite signs of cooling — and even a price correction mid next year — the stratospheric gains pushed values well out of reach of some buyers’ budgets.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria figures show a total of 115 postcodes scored new price benchmarks between January and November.

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The Kooyong residence was sold by Spotlight chief executive Quentin Gracanin.

These included inner-city hubs such as Fitzroy North, Brighton East and Thornbury, to the metropolitan outposts of Koo Wee Rup North, Bunyip and Mambourin.

Suburban locales north, east, south and west of the CBD were swept up in the price hike as low stock and high demand pushed prices sky high.

REIV president Adam Docking predicted the strong market would continue through to the first half of next year, but with lower sale volumes and more stable price gains.

“We’ll definitely see a rationalisation of sale volumes. We won’t see the volume that we’ve seen at the end of the year because of all the lockdown properties,” Mr Docking said.

Stand out results this year included the sale of the opulent five-bedroom, seven-bathroom abode at 48 Beaumont Rd, Berwick, which transacted for $9.5m in March.

The palatial pad, named Chateau Beaumont, is set on a 8800sq block and has an on site health retreat with a gym, sauna, steam room as well as a spa, pool and a tennis court.

The lavish abode at 48 Beaumont Rd, Berwick, set a new benchmark when it sold for $9.5m

Some sales, such as 47 Lansell Rd, Toorak, which sold for $43.1m in October, did not have sale prices reported to the REIV so were excluded from the data.

The REIV data excludes sales where the price was undisclosed or not provided by the agent. This includes the year’s most expensive transaction at 47 Lansell Rd, Toorak, which Chemist Warehouse boss Sam Gance snapped up for $43.1m in October.

Former Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour’s historic Hawthorn manor, Invergowrie, which sold for $40.5m in May, was also not included in the data.

Mr Docking said sellers cashed in on the stratospheric value gains in 2021, but buyers on smaller budgets had found it more difficult to realise their homeownership dream.

They had to stretch their finances or widen their search to more affordable neighbouring suburbs to get their hands on a set of keys. But he said relief would come next year when price gains levelled out.

No. 26 Browns Road, Main Ridge, changed hands for $8.5m in January.

The abode at 31 Gordon St, Hampton, transacted for $8.18m in August.

“There’s no indication that prices will drop, but they will definitely stabilise and we won’t see those real blowout results that we have in the last couple of months,” Mr Docking said.

“(The strong market) actually does benefit first-home buyers because they see when they get into the property a fairly quick increase in their price, so it gives them more confidence that they’ve made the right decision.”

Spotlight chief executive Quentin Gracanin’s lavish 1932-built Kooyong mansion, Merriwee, was among the year’s top suburb record breakers, according to the data.

It sold in March for $8.6m after its first sale campaign was scuppered following the onset of the pandemic.

It joined 26 Browns Rd, Main Ridge, 31 Gordon St, Hampton, and 7 The Promenade, Somers, as the REIV’s top five most expensive new record holders in 2021, excluding undisclosed prices like those achieved in Toorak and Kooyong.

The Taylors Hill suburb record was smashed when 30 Coogee Drive transacted for $1.36m.

Each residence sold for between $7.9m and $8.5m.

Benchmarks were also smashed in outer suburban areas, including Hoppers Crossing in the city’s west. There, a three-bedroom family home changed hands in May for $2m.

Further north, No. 30 Coogee Drive in Taylors Hill sold for $1.36m, outstripping the previous record set in 2018 when 23 Balerno Way sold for $1.3m.

Derrimut, also in the city’s west, scored a new suburb record when a four-bedroom family home sold for $1.15m. This eclipsed the previous $1.085m record set in 2016.

And Reefton, near Marysville in the Yarra Ranges Shire, marked a new $420,000 record following the sale of a two-bedroom unit in April.