House prices soar ahead

By Paul Pickering
PROPERTY values in Belgrave South have risen by a stunning 30 per cent in the space of 12 months – and real estate agents say there is no plateau in sight.
Figures released last week by the State Government show that Belgrave South experienced the seventh highest shift in median house price in metropolitan Melbourne from 2005 to 2006.
In 2005, the median house sale price for the suburb was $279,000.
Just a year later that figure had soared to $363,500.
Trevor Bell, managing director of Bell Real Estate group, said the Belgrave South property boom is likely to gain further momentum this year.
“I believe we’ll see a further upward trend of probably 10 to 12 per cent this year,” Mr Bell declared.
He said that the upturn was largely due to improved road infrastructure in the outer-eastern suburbs and a ripple effect from soaring inner-city house prices.
“A lot of people are looking for lifestyle properties at the moment,” he said.
“There has been a shift from the sea change to the tree change.”
Mr Bell said that the extension of the Monash Freeway and the ongoing EastLink project has made people feel more comfortable about the prospect of commuting to the city from the hills.
And he said the demand has not only come from inner-city buyers.
Mr Bell said that he has had a lot of interest from beneficiaries of the West Australian property boom, as well as buyers from as far as the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Rik Rushton, managing director of Ranges First National Real Estate, agreed that the traditional metropolitan market has been gradually extended into the Dandenongs.
“Buyers who were looking closer in the eastern corridor at Canterbury or Surrey Hills are now looking further out,” he said.
Mr Rushton also noted that strict planning restrictions on block-size and subdivision in the hills dictate that the demand for property continues to exceed supply.
Across Victoria, property prices returned to a more sustainable level of growth in 2006, with a six per cent increase in median house sale prices.