Things are getting bigger in sleepy Hampton, but are they getting better?

 I reckon it’s tough to live in Hampton. Especially if you’re the envious type. You have reminders of your fancy neighbour, Brighton, everywhere. Down the main drag of Hampton Street, where there’s a seemingly never-ending row of shops, the cars shout out to pedestrians: “Lexus Brighton” and “Mercedes-Benz Brighton.” It’s all Brighton this, Brighton that.

Oh yes, we all know Brighton. For some, it’s that spot where you can speed up to 80km/h on the Nepean Highway. It’s home to a huge range of car dealerships: some more prestige than others. You zoom past Ford, Holden and Toyota and onto the bigwigs Lexus, Brighton Jaguar, Brighton BMW.

Even tourists know Brighton. They have “Brighton Beach Boxes” on their to-see list. They spend ages getting the perfect shot of themselves, with or without selfie stick, in front of beach boxes painted with Australian flags and seahorses.

The median house price is lower in Hampton than Brighton. Photo: Michael Rayner

And then there’s Hampton. I know the Beach Road part of Hampton thanks to the annual Sandy Point Half Marathon. It starts in Brighton’s Green Point and takes runners past houses with questionable aesthetics that line Beach Road in Hampton, then turns in the next suburb, Sandringham, and back to the Brighton start. Cyclists love this road.

Just inland, and completely missed if you’re travelling along Beach Road or Nepean Highway, is what could be a fabulous shopping strip. But it’s not. Quite a few of Hampton Street’s shops lie empty. Some are switching to “boutique developments” like the Ĥartsman (complete with circumflex) in the “hart” of Hampton (complete with incorrect spelling). There will be “only” 15 apartments on the block. It joins the 30-apartment development Pure, on Small Street. Things are getting bigger. But better?

There are a lot of sportswear shops, bike shops, frock shops and op shops on Hampton Street. The latter, though reducing in number, are still some of Melbourne’s finest. And priced that way. At one, the hardly-, if ever-, worn second-hand clothes have their marked prices slashed by half at the counter. “Some of the ladies get a little excited with their pricing!” explains the woman as she takes my coin for the designer threads.

The bayside ‘burb is frequently overshadowed by Brighton. Photo: Michael Rayner

There’s a massive difference in house prices, too. The Domain Group’s latest figures show the median house price in Brighton is now $2.55 million. Move one ‘burb over to Hampton and you’ll be able to settle for $1.8 million. Even the median unit price in Brighton is $1 million. You can enjoy unit-life in Hampton for around $700,000.

• Related: Tiny suburb triples in 10 years
• Related: Cool suburb even grandparents like
• Related: Quiet spot people queue to get into

There’s one more thing. Coming from the northern suburbs, where most of the shops seemed to have changed their names to “Vote Yes!”, there’s not one sign of marriage equality (or anything remotely political) in Hampton. There’s a rainbow flag flying from a unit on Beach Road, but that’s it. Even the homemade almond-milk spot, Holy Bowly, with its acai bowls is rainbow free.

And Brighton was looking exactly the same. In all its glossy, shiny beauty (the people, and the shops), not one sign. Doesn’t anyone here have an opinion? Then finally, I see it. The entire Lululemon window, covered in rainbow stripes and “damn right we’re voting yes”. And the winner is…

Five things you didn’t know about Hampton:

• Its border with Brighton is not South Road – it is a row of houses south of South Road. This means that the private school Haileybury — which has been here since 1932 — can claim a Brighton address. There’s also a Haileybury Street (in Brighton).
• This month sees some major beach works commencing at Hampton Beach. It’ll be goodbye to the existing groynes and hello to 20,000 cubic metres of dredged sand and a new 140 metre rock groyne.
• Hampton is a rather lofty 14km from the CBD – putting it on par in distance to Fawkner in the north.
• It takes 25 mins on the train to the CBD. Hampton Station is on the Sandringham line.
• Hampton’s former housing commission houses are going for a packet.