Geelong suburbs giving upsizers, downsizers more bang for buck

Geelong suburbs offering the biggest bang for the buck of buyers looking to upsize to larger homes have been revealed in new data.

Highton: The five-bedroom house at 22B Pepperdine Way is listed with price hopes from $1.695m to $1.8m.

The Geelong suburbs offering the biggest bang for the buck of buyers looking to upsize to larger homes have been revealed in new research.

Suburbs such as Armstrong Creek, Mount Duneed, Grovedale and Lara have been identified as a better way for young families to upsize their homes than heading to more prestigious areas such as Highton, Newtown and Ocean Grove.

Research author PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said the suburbs not only provided the biggest choice of four-plus-bedroom homes in Geelong, they offered the most affordable path to a bigger house.

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Dr Mardiasmo said the developing areas offered an affordable stepping stone that would pay back buyers in the long-term.

“Places that we’ve chosen already have some amenities around it that will set these families up, so whether it’s a shopping centre or a regional park, there’s some sort of lifestyle around it,” she said.

Armstrong Creek: The five-bedroom house from Dennis Family Homes at 17 Buchanan Blvd is listed with price hopes from $1.05m to $1.15m.

“If there’s already some lifestyle around the place, then the suburb will most likely grow with you.

“So your kids can go to these places, you can shop, and if there’s already that sort of lifestyle infrastructure around the area, it will attract more people there and so

“If you are willing to commit to whatever level of debt that you’re going to commit to, it’s going to be worth it because there’s actually going to be some infrastructure, some liveability and most people will be attracted to the area.

Four bedrooms: 16 Tutor St, Mt Duneed, is listed from $895,000 to $935,000.

“It will grow with you so if you’re going to sell in the next 10 years, then you’ve got some capital growth.”

Dr Mardiasmo said suburbs such as Newtown, Highton and Ocean Grove were more expensive due to their coastal or inner city positions.

“It just depends on where you are in your journey – whether you’re someone sitting on some equity and say it’s time for me to move to a nicer place, or you might be someone who have been living in a unit and you’ve just started a family and go ‘all right, the unit is really crowded’,” she said.

BEST SUBURBS FOR UPGRADERS:

Armstrong Creek $690,000

Highton $1.015m

Lara $802,000

Ocean Grove $1.195m

Grovedale $742,500

Mount Duneed $750,000

Leopold $810,000

Newtown $1.48m

Charlemont $685,000

Curlewis $718,750

Source: PRD. Suburbs with most 4+ bedroom homes. Median price for 4+ bedroom homes.

“Now we need a four-bedroom house.”

Geelong buyers advocate Tony Slack said suburbs such as Armstrong Creek and Mt Duneed were logical choices for what they offered.

He recently helped a couple with an 18-month-old child buy in the area.

“I was surprised at how the good the facilities are and will be out that way,” he said.

“They wanted new, they wanted four bedrooms and paid $1m to get in.

“This place at Armstrong Creek is not that far from Barwon Heads.

The four-bedroom Grand Lakes Estate home at 4 Bluebill Court, Lara, is a large home with a separate shed and man cave in the back yard.

“The same property at Barwon Heads would be twice as much, if not more and your 10 minutes down the road.

“If there is ever a dress circle of Armstrong Creek it’s opposite the lake there.”

But as with all suburbs, there are pitfalls to look out for, such as properties closest to amenities.

But it’s different in streets closest to some facilities, such as schools.

“With that comes higher density – a lot of the blocks are 300 to 350sq m and they are all very close to one another,” Mr Slack said.

Geelong: The four-bedroom home at 16 Jones Place is an architectural delight that blends interlocking cladding with old Geelong red bricks and luxury interiors.

He said buying a near-new house provided a house on a landscaped block that was below replacement cost, given the rising cost of building.

The PRD research showed inner-city bayside suburbs were hot spots for downsizers, with the most development occurring in suburbs hugging the bay.

Rippleside would have to be one of the biggest development hot spots, per capita, with several bayside projects underway, including in Balmoral Crescent and at Stella Maris.

Downsizers are the vast majority of buyers at Balmoral Quay, including this three-bedroom, three-level townhouse at 6 Lumb Place, Rippleside, listed with $1.45m to $1.5m price hopes

But central Geelong also has a large number of townhouses and apartments in the pipeline, with projects including The Bottleworks and Cunningham Place.

“Rippleside has become a real area of attraction for downsizers who are looking to sell their big family home in the suburbs and treat themselves to a waterfront lifestyle,” McGrath Projects Geelong agent Jim Cross said.

“Both Stella Maris and Balmoral Quay offer luxury living in large volume, so it’s attracting people who still want a spacious dwelling however want the low-maintenance lifestyle that allows them to enjoy their retirement.”

Townhouse construction continues at The Bottleworks residential development in Geelong. An apartment project will follow on in a heritage-listed industrial building in the centre of the Fitzroy St property.

Mr Cross said 90 per cent of buyers within Stella Maris and Balmoral Quay were downsizers.

Mr Slack listed neighbourhoods around Highton Village and East Geelong’s Garden St as other downsizing options.

While tighter heritage controls limited development at East Geelong, there was already plenty of work underway replacing older homes with new townhouses and apartments around the popular Highton shopping centre.

Originally published as Geelong suburbs giving upsizers, downsizers more bang for buck