Melbourne suburbs Australia's most in demand

HALF of Australia’s top 10 most in demand suburbs are in Melbourne, according to realestate.com.au’s new Property Outlook report.

Leafy Warrandyte continues to reign at the top of the listings website’s rankings, coming in at No.1 across the country, with Eltham, Middle Park, Albert Park and Eltham North also featuring in the national top 10 for all property types.

Victoria’s regional cities had huge increases in demand year-on-year, boosted by an influx of Melbourne buyers seeking more affordable houses.

Melbourne’s most in demand suburbs revealed

Demand in Ballarat has grown 62 per cent, with Warrnambool (58 per cent) and Greater Geelong (56 per cent) also experiencing surges of more than 50 per cent, according to the quarterly report.

The website calculates demand based on the number of property views against the average number of property listings.

Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee expected prices to continue to rise in these regional cities throughout the year, driven by increased competition for affordable homes.

Biggin & Scott, Ballarat, director Francesca Nicol said surging demand in her area had been compounded by lower stock levels — expected to increase over the coming weeks.

“Compared to the Melbourne and Sydney markets, Ballarat is still ridiculously affordable. You can still get a beautiful four-bedroom home for less than $600,000, so it’s pretty good going,” she said.

“And there are still homes available at the $200,000-$400,000 level, if people are willing to go four or five minutes from the CBD you can get really cheap property.”

Jellis Craig, Eltham, director Aaron Yeats said his patch had become more popular with out of area buyers also on the hunt for affordable housing.

“What we’re seeing in the marketplace is gentrification of the area is increasing,” he said.

“Going back four years’ ago, we used to see a lot of our sales coming from buyers already living within the Diamond Valley.

“Whereas now, what we’re seeing is almost half, if not more, are coming from the inner northern suburbs, particularly Thornbury, Northcote and Brunswick.

“Younger couples when they have kids are coming out this way for schooling.”

Mr Yeats said buyers were also coming from eastern suburbs Templestowe, Doncaster and Bulleen.

scott.carbines@news.com.au

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