Albion: Melbourne baristas, this suburb needs you (and you’d make a killing)

• Big money arriving in once-sleepy St Albans
• Higher house prices don’t always mean hipsters
• Gritty Footscray well and truly on the rise

It’s hard to pinpoint what signifies gentrification. Is it when locals can spend lazy weekends eating sourdough with free range eggs and house-cured bacon at a close-to-home cafe? Or their weekdays tapping out screenplays on a MacBook while perched on a salvaged chair under suspended light bulbs in their hood? Or is it simply when house prices in a once unfashionable suburb begin to bounce around Melbourne’s near-$800,000 median price, meaning only those in well-paying jobs can buy in?

According to Domain Group data, house prices in little Albion are rapidly getting bigger. The median price is $655,000, up 44 per cent in the past 12 months alone.

The tiny ‘burb (its population is under 5000) is well and truly gentrifying. But it is, as yet, completely “trendy” cafe-free. Three empty corner shops in the suburb scream the same thing: opportunity. One sits right across the road from Albion Primary School (which grew from 130 students last year to 190 students in 2017) and Albion Kindergarten. It’s a double whammy for the canny barista who can serve up a double shot. There’s another prime should-be cafe spot on Drummartin Street, and, hey, we’ve even named the could-be cafe for you: Drummer Boy.

“[Albion] was almost hidden. You’d drive there and you wouldn’t see anyone. You still don’t!” Photo: Jayne D’Arcy

Yes, baristas: bypass Brunswick and head straight to Albion. There’s another sign of gentrification, and it’s easy to spot. Former northern ‘burbs real estate agent and now co-founder and CEO of bespoke development company Scalise Studios, Steven Scalise, picks up-and-coming suburbs by their foliage.

Cruise around Northcote and you’ll see snow gums and veggie gardens in front gardens. Cruise around Albion, and you’ll now see the same. “From my experience of selling in Fitzroy and Fitzroy North, I could see a connection with the same renovations and the gardens – homeowners planting indigenous gardens in particular,” he says.

Opportunity awaits the savvy and enterprising hipster barista-cum-cafe owner at this empty Albion shop. Photo: Jayne D’Arcy

Scalise grew up in neighbouring Sunshine, and recently decided to develop there. His project Hill Terrace is almost complete, but when it came time to buy again in Sunshine, house prices had risen.

“Sunshine was always great value, so you didn’t need to consider Albion. Only recently when I looked to buy another site in Sunshine, I noticed that the property market was going up faster than you could buy a house!”

He then looked to the “sleeper suburb” of Albion. “It didn’t have a shopping strip, it didn’t have the same demographic. It was almost hidden. You’d drive there and you wouldn’t see anyone. You still don’t!” he says.

Scenic: Selwyn Park by Kororoit Creek. Photo: Jayne D’Arcy

Albion was designed as a “Garden City” by H.V McKay for employees of Sunshine Harvester Works. Some of the attributes of this design, including parks like the very community-oriented Selwyn Park, by a particularly scenic part of Kororoit Creek, remain.

There’s something nice about Albion’s streetscape. Blocks of mostly poorly-maintained 1970s flats dot the wide streets (the median price of a flat here is $213,500), but it’s the period homes that really stand out. And there’s another sign of gentrification: skips in front yards filled with the detritus of renovation. Yes, these old homes are getting a new chance at life.

“Thanks to McKay, Albion ended up as a suburb with wide streets and parks, and all these beautiful and large Californian bungalows and 1940s weatherboard homes. But they’d gone into disrepair,” says Scalise. “But over the past three to five years, there’s been gradually this movement to restore these homes. And over the last two or three, with that influx of gentrification and people looking for family homes, more of those homes are being renovated. It’s like the suburb has come alive again,” he says.

Five things you didn’t know about Albion

• It’s about 13 kilometres west of the CBD and its boundaries include the Western Ring Road, St Albans Road and Kororoit Creek.
• The Sunbury train line will get you from Albion to the CBD in six stops.
• AC/DC filmed the video clip for Jailbreak in Albion quarry, which itself started in 1885.
• You can grab a pastizzi with your coffee at Cafe Verdala at the Maltese Cultural Centre (open from 8.30am Sundays).
• Albion Eco-living Centre at Selwyn Park has yoga classes, community gardens and even a free stand offering locally-grown produce.