‘Slim pickings’: Family add $400k to budget as investors flood market with unit stock

A St Kilda couple have revealed the difficulty families looking to upsize from apartments face after they spent months, and $400,000 more than expected, to escape their two-bedroom unit.

St Kilda family Joanne Hansen, Damien Taylor and their two daughters Maggie and Lucy are upsizing from their two-bedroom apartment. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.

Joanne Hansen, her partner Damien Taylor and their two daughters Maggie, 3, and Lucy, 8 months, are upsizing from their two-bedroom Art Deco apartment in St Kilda.

The couple searched for months for a bigger house with at least three bedrooms and were forced to up their budget to about $1.8m after struggling to find one suitable for $1.4m-$1.5m.

They currently live in a unit that is too small for their growing family as the couple share a room with their baby.

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The family also shares a communal back yard with other residents in their complex and wanted to find a home where they can have their own yard with a trampoline.

However Ms Hansen said the current property market was saturated with units and apartments with investors selling up, while houses were “slim pickings”.

The young family struggled to find a house within their budget. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.

“We realised we weren’t going to get anything that suited us at our (initial) price point that wouldn’t need a new kitchen or extension, so our goalposts changed,” she said.

“It was competitive because it was slim pickings.”

With the help of McGrath St Kilda, the young family found a four-bedroom house off market for $1.8m and will be listing their apartment next week.

The firm’s principal Michael Townsend echoed their view that market supply in the past three months mostly comprised units and apartments.

McGrath St Kilda principal Michael Townsend said demand was outweighing supply for houses in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs.

“There’s huge demand outweighing supply for houses,” Mr Townsend said.

“At the top end in Brighton around $5m-$8m, it’s incredibly strong in terms of buyer demand because stock is so tight at that level. Which means people who might be looking at $3m-$4m can’t find anything … it’s the shuffle effect.”

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Originally published as ‘Slim pickings’: Family add $400k to budget as investors flood market with unit stock