This article was first published on www.heraldsun.com.au by
MELBOURNE could have a million-dollar median house price in as few as five years, property experts say.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria figures show househunters already struggle to spend less than seven figures within 10km of the CBD, which had a median house price of $1,256,500 at the end of March.
The same will soon be the case for Melbourne’s middle ring, where the median is $827,500 and rising. The city’s overall median house price is $713,000.
Elite Buyer Agents director Kim Easterbrook expects Victoria’s capital to join Sydney in having a seven-figure median in the next five years, as the city’s rampant population growth continues to push up house prices.
“Our population is growing by 100,000 per annum, and our stock market isn’t great, so people feel more confident putting their money into bricks and mortar at the moment,” she said.
Ms Easterbrook said $1 million didn’t go a long way in inner Melbourne anymore.
She said in Brighton, the sum would have bought a family house 10 years ago and now it would “barely buy a villa unit”. In Northcote, there were only a few $1 million sales a decade ago, for houses on huge 1000sq m blocks. Now the suburb’s median house price was almost $1 million.
REIV chief executive Enzo Raimondo predicted a million-dollar median for Melbourne in eight years, while Frank Valentic of Advantage Property Consulting believes it will happen in about seven.
But Mr Valentic expects the city to have 100 millionaire suburbs in the next six to 12 months. He predicts areas north and west of the CBD including Northcote, Thornbury and Newport will be next to join the club, which currently has 93 members.
Mr Valentic said the fact some of the newest ones, Highett and Mentone, were 16km and 21km from the CBD showed it was “getting tougher” to buy a house anywhere near the city centre for under $1 million.
Lois and Bill Toogood. Picture: Rob Leeson.
In the million-dollar suburb of Glen Waverley, a seven-figure sum will get you a decades-old house outside the sought-after school zone, Harcourts Judd White director Dexter Prack says.
But five years ago, it would have landed you a brand new property in the school zone and 10 years ago, there was no such thing as a million-dollar sale in Glen Waverley.
“You could have bought two houses on the outskirts of Glen Waverley for $1 million then,” Mr Prack said.
“There’s really been a shift in demand since the suburb became the flavour of the Asian market.”
Retirees Lois and Bill Toogood (pictured) have benefited from Glen Waverley’s growth. They sold their home and 650sq m block on Kincumber Dr for $1.1 million last week — they bought the land for just £1450 in 1964.
Mrs Toogood said she never imagined her home would be worth that much.