Housing affordability in Australia always seems to be under the microscope, but it is still possible to buy a house within 10kms from Melbourne’s CBD for under $600,000.
New RP Data figures show that 2000 Melbournians did just that last year, despite property prices rising to record levels.
The median house price for the whole city of Melbourne currently sits at $610,000, and plenty of wise homebuyers found properties that were much below the median price for their highly sought-after location.
For example, South Yarra and Hawthorn’s median house prices are both over $1 million, but together they had 35 properties last year that sold for less than $600,000.
In fact, last year, 21.5 per cent of all house sales within 10kms of the CBD were below $600,000, which equated to 1811 sales. Around a third of these came from Coburg, Coburg North, Footscray West, Footscray, Maidstone and Preston.
RP Data Victorian spokesman Robert Larocca told The Age the sub-$600k sales may have been smaller properties in need of some repair, but buying them gave people a better chance of graduating to a better property in the same area down further down the track.
“It might be this isn’t your dream house, but this may get your foot in the door and get you into the better capital growth that is found in the inner suburbs,” he said.
“If you are prepared to wait and scour the property pages, you can find something more affordable.”
He said you might have to allow for it to take some time and not become too picky.
