VIC Inner city ring Melbourne

yup - if you go the likes of abbotsford, Fitzroy, parts of Richmond etc

 

My pick would be Fairfield & Alphington.

 

52 Arthur Street Fairfield Vic 3078 52 Arthur Street Fairfield Vic 3078 - House for Sale #126711862 - realestate.com.au

 

Support that; also add Ivanhoe - leafy, vibrant, suits any generation: young, families, older ppl; safe and proper.

 

woof woof

 

Phew... glad my daughter moved out of Richmond

 

What about safe.

 

Value is definitely on the west side at the moment. For value I'd be looking from Essendon (as Y-man says) in a belt down through Moonee Ponds, Maribyrnong, Footscray, Yarraville. Lots of infill going on as old factories and warehouses get turned in to apartments. Lots of students, lots of first home owners moving in. Cafe culture ramping up in pockets throughout. Relatively easy commute to the CBD. The west side of Melbourne was traditionally a "rough" place. But that's changing steadily. With the exception of South Yarra, most of the suburbs named on this thread were "rough" places 20 years ago, but now they are places where you'd find it hard to get much change from $2M for a good family home. The western suburbs are still selling at a huge discount in comparison.

 

No love for Ascot Vale? It feels like the Prahran of the west at about half the price.

 

Inner West provides more value, but why? what is the stigma as opposed to East? Trying to understand the Melbourne psyche.


MTR

 

Footscray=Redfern

Now all the druggies have moved to Richmond, and Footscray got gradually gentrified. New hipster places are opened every few weeks.
But I still wouldn't walk around Footscray in the middle of the night though.

 

I like Ascot Vale (and for that matter Flemington and Kensington) but there is not much left there for under $1M. Having said that, $1M in the west of Melb buys a whole lot more than $1M in the east - or buys the same thing but about 10km closer to the city.

 

As a generalisation, the west side of Melbourne was traditionally the centre of its large manufacturing and logistics industry. This provided lots of working class jobs, which in turn attracted people who wanted to buy modest family homes and who didn't spend a lot on lavish restaurants etc. The east, on the other hand was much more middle-class, supplying lawyers, doctors, public servants etc.

In the last 20 years this division has been slowly breaking down. (People used to talk openly about "which side of the river" you were from - the Yarra River that is - look it up on google maps. But not so much any more). My observation is that there are many forces driving this change. (1) the slow-motion collapse of traditional industries and their working class jobs, (2) the rise and rise of new industries and their middle class jobs - IT, consulting, designers, etc. These two forces together mean that the middle class have simply over-flowed their traditional strong-holds in the east and started to gentrify the west. This gentrification has largely been a slow spread from the east and moving north-west, starting through Richmond, Clifton Hill, North Fitzroy - later to Northcote, Brunswick, Thornbury and so on. (3) there's been a conscious drive to revitalise the CBD and turn it into a desirable place to live. Governments have spent a lot of money and offered incentives to large developers. The CBD in Melbourne is actually not in the centre, its in the west (Box Hill is somewhere about the centre - really, check a map). (4) there's been a hipster-led revitalisation of the inner city suburbs (which are also actually in the west as per the CBD). And lastly (5) Melbourne has a large migration inflow. Migrants are (I think) more focused on value rather than prestige (compared to long-term residents). They also tend to work hard and do well over the long haul, which drives up the value of places they choose to live. But in the short term it holds down the value of the places they move into because it worries the long term residents eg "I wouldn't walk down the street at night". The west is better value so its getting more than its share of migrants compared to the east.

 

Me too. Love Kensington, Seddon and Flemington

 

It's not that bad these days compared to what it was 10 years ago.
(Talking from somebody who basically grew up in Footscray)

 

I have never been to the West side of Melbourne (well apart from Great Ocean Road) before I met my partner who is a Footscray local. The first time I went to Footscray (just a few years ago), I got groped by a homeless guy at the station, you can understand my shock!