Altona has pipped Toorak to record Melbourne’s second highest unit price growth, according to the Domain House Price Report for the March quarter.
West Footscray made the top 10 suburbs for house price growth, coming in at No. 6, on the heels of South Yarra.
Altona’s median unit price soared 30.6 per cent to $580,000 in the 12 months to March. Toorak recorded a 30.4 per cent growth in unit prices.
Barlow McEwan Tribe First National’s Anthony Molinia said unit and townhouse prices had dramatically increased over the past year in the wake of skyrocketing house prices in the area.
“We are now seeing buyers coming from all over Melbourne as Altona is recognised as a genuine bayside suburb with its own swimming beach,” he said. “Not to mention the excellent public transport … schools, beautiful parks, cafes and restaurants.
“The secret is out: Altona is now on the radar … it is only 15kilometres from the CBD and the potential for growth has been very much understated in the past.”
The house median in West Footscray grew 29.2 per cent to $885,000. A four-bedroom house at 15 Rupert Street recently set a new record for a family home, selling for $1.325 million – $25,000 over the past record.
Selling agent, hockingstuart’s Marcus Fregonese said he had lived in West Footscray his whole life. “The appeal for West Footscray is that it’s so close to the CBD, there’s fantastic primary schools, fantastic parks,” he said.
“Five years ago it was probably a spillover suburb where people were coming there purely because they couldn’t afford Yarraville and Seddon, and now it’s certainly a destination suburb with cafes, the gentrification and the lifestyle.
“You couldn’t get a coffee five years ago and now there’s five cafes in West Footscray.”
Domain chief economist Andrew Wilson said Melbourne’s west would continue to rise.
“The west still offers value, reflecting high levels of residential amenity with reasonable proximity and commute to the CBD,” he said.
“Prices, however, can be expected to continue to rise in the region, reflecting the value advantage and fuelled by a flood of first home buyers likely from July and record migration continuing into Melbourne.”
www.domain.com.au/group/agent-news/domain-state-of-the-market-report-march-2017/
