Melbourne suburbs where you can get a home for similar prices to a decade ago

Melbourne buyers have been given a budget buyer’s hit list of suburbs where they can nab a home for a similar price to a decade ago. SEARCH YOUR SUBURB.

The Melbourne suburbs where you can nab a home for a similar price to a decade ago have been revealed. Picture: David Caird

Melbourne home hunters have been given a budget buyers’ hit list of suburbs where they can nab a new pad for a similar price to a decade ago.

But they might have to think small.

New data from PropTrack shows the markets where property prices have increased less than inflation (10 per cent) since 2013, meaning buyers paid in today’s earnings can get a place for the same price as they would have 10 years before.

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A two-bedroom apartment in Travancore at 454/38 Mt Alexander Rd is for sale for $329,990. An apartment in the same building sold for $340,000 in 2013.

In Essendon North, 407/110 Keilor Rd, Essendon North, has a $350,000-$370,000 price guide.

At the top of the list are five Victorian suburbs’ where the median unit price has fallen over the past decade; including Travancore, which plummeted by $163,250, Essendon North, $78,000, and Abbotsford, $74,000.

There were more modest declines in Carlton, $24,000, and Notting Hill, $13,500, where student accommodation is common.

Nelson Alexander Carlton North agent James Pilliner said buyers were often willing to pay a premium on something “irreplaceable”.

Mr Pilliner explained that apartments built earlier than the 1990s tended to rise in price more than contemporary, “mass produced high rises” that were mostly bought by investors renting out their properties to students in the Carlton, Parkville and CBD areas.

“Most owner-occupiers buy the larger, older style apartments, while investors buy the brand new ones which are the ones dragging the growth percentage down,” he said.

“In 10 years there’s been very strong growth but that’s perhaps brought down by mass-produced apartments that sold off the plan for a certain price that has since dropped.”

Also in Essendon North, 5/1 Royal Ave has a $475,000 asking price.

102/15 Lithgow St, Abbotsford, has a $409,000 asking price.

Pagan Real Estate Travancore director Ryan Pagan, who predominantly sells apartments in the Travancore and Essendon North areas, said off-the-plan properties were “oversold” in the past 10 years by developers trying to get their projects off the ground.

The state government also increased the first-home owner grant in July 2013 from $7000 to $10,000 for newly constructed homes valued under $750,000, making off-the-plan and new apartments more popular among first-timers.

But despite the handful of unit and apartment markets with similar median costs to those of 2013, house hunters had no such luck.

109/23 Palmerston St, Carlton, is listed for $550,000-$590,000.

In the CBD, 3101/5 Sutherland St has a $400,000-$440,000 price guide.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore said over the past few years there was an increasing demand for detached houses which drove house prices up “pretty briskly” in Melbourne’s outer suburbs and regional areas.

“We saw an increase in the value people place on size and space at home, so home prices grew faster than units, and larger homes more than smaller homes,” Mr Moore said.

“Melbourne has obviously done quite a good job of building density in some of those inner city areas, particularly around Melbourne CBD and Southbank, and building homes where people want to live is the only long term solution to housing affordability.”

He added that the increase in apartments built in “attractive parts of Melbourne” had helped to keep unit and apartment costs down to a certain extent.

Amy Lunardi Property founder and buyer’s agent Amy Lunardi also noted that the extra apartment stock in these inner city locations led to less scarcity and growth drivers as buyers had more options to choose from.

“You also get smaller dwellings with lower prices going up in those buildings,” Ms Lunardi said.

“If we’ve got more stock on the market of smaller, one or two-bedroom (apartments), it’s going to bring that median price down.”

The buyer’s advocate added that some first-home buyers valued location and amenities over capital growth, therefore the lack of growth in these markets over the past decade was unlikely to deter those desperate to break into the inner ‘burbs.

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