Century 21's Rob Sordello sold 6 Hill Grove Preston under the hammer. We can do it! We can lead the charge! Only a few decades ago North Fitzroy was a slum that no one wanted to live in, right? How about we buy a place in an up-and-coming area a bit further from the CBD and live through the gentrification? We can help it become cool. We can be the first kids at the cusp of the suburb’s change, and sit back and watch neighbouring houses sell for 10 times what we paid way back when pit bull and our suburb’s name were synonymous.
According to Colin Abbas, partner and auctioneer at Nelson Alexander Preston, plenty of people are moving into previously unthought of suburbs like Preston, about nine kilometres north of Melbourne’s CBD. ”Most of our clients are late 20s to late 40s, and all of them, well, 99 per cent of them are people who started to look in that Northcote, Thornbury, Coburg, Brunswick corridor, but can’t afford it and get pushed up the line,” says Abbas.
With Preston’s median price hanging around the $650,000-$700,000 mark, you can get more bang for your buck, as Abbas explains. ”It all comes back to pricing. For what you’re paying in Preston for a renovated home, it’s almost the price of what you’re paying for an unrenovated home in those suburbs.”
Infrastructure-wise, he says a move further north to Preston wouldn’t be too much of a surprise for former inner-city residents. ”The infrastructure is identical, in a sense, it does have the trams, the trains, the buses, and we’re fortunate to have a beautiful market, Preston Market, and a main shopping centre, Northland.”
So, how about further out to Reservoir, a working-class suburb 13 kilometres from the CBD? Abbas is clear. ”The people who are buying in Reservoir are predominantly people who have been looking in Preston but can’t afford it. When they come into Reservoir there are certain pockets that they desire – like the Regent pocket, which is very, very popular. Regent still has access to all the infrastructure.”
Monique Sasson, founder of Wakelin Property Advisory, has no qualms describing what it can be like to be a ”pioneer” in a non-gentrified area. ”I don’t think there’s anything particularly glamorous about going into some of these areas – it’s compromise and affordability – there’s no mystique about it at all! I hear people say: ‘I’ll just cope with the fact that I’ve got to drive everywhere, that even if I want a loaf of bread and milk, I can’t just walk to the local 7-Eleven, I’m going to have to get in the car to get it.’ If people are used to living in a more built-up area, where there is infrastructure, plenty of public transport, and if something’s not walking distance you just hop on the tram or train, it comes as quite a shock to them,” says Sasson.
Things to consider when outer-city living is calling
1. Nothing is convenient.
Want organic vegetables? You’ll probably have to drive somewhere distant to get them. Sourdough? Same deal. Love art galleries? They just become too hard to get to. Spur-of-the-moment disappears. Everything can just seem too far away. Except Bunnings.
2. Living in Zone 2 can get expensive.
Driving into the city gives you plenty of ”meditation time” in traffic jams, but if you’re in Zone 2, hopping on the train instead of into the car will cost $12 a day in fares, instead of $7 if you’re just travelling in Zone 1.
3. Some suburbs are always in the news for the wrong reasons.
You may find your family texting you each time your suburb is in the news. Texts may go like this: ”Stabbing in **** Street! I looked on Google Maps and that’s quite close to you!” or ”Pit bull attack on **** Street! Lock your door!” It can get you down.
4. Your expectations change.
This is the most surprising of all. When you see that your neighbour wears black moccasins to the supermarket, you start to think that Havaianas matched with Bonds tracksuit pants are high fashion. Trips to Bunnings and Dan Murphy’s become highlights. Big TVs become beautiful because apart from the endless renovations, there’s nothing else to do.
5. Your friends don’t visit.
As Monique Sasson says, moving to the outer suburbs doesn’t do great things for your social life. ”You have – and probably more for women than men – a certain degree of social isolation that goes hand in hand with this kind of move, particularly if you’ve been living in the inner suburbs and are used to that kind of lifestyle and infrastructure. You can’t go and ring a girlfriend and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing? I’m walking to the cafe, do you want to join me for a coffee?’ It’s not possible,” she says.
While many people are happy paying a lower house price for a bigger backyard and wider street, if you look closely, there’s a silent creep of folk with their tails between their legs reclaiming their inner-city lives.
They’re leaving their big backyard in Preston and returning to compact living in Fitzroy, or from Reservoir to Thornbury. You’ll see them skipping into organic food shops, cartwheeling onto the tram, and flying happily down bike paths. Sometimes life’s just too short to be a pioneer.