Some of Melbourne’s most premium postcodes are within grasp if buyers consider an apartment over a house, new REIV data shows.
REIV president Richard Simpson said that apartments remain relatively affordable, even in many of the city’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
“Apartments and units are ideal for buyers who don’t want to compromise on location or amenities, offering an entry point to many of Melbourne’s most expensive suburbs,” Mr Simpson said.
“Apartments allow buyers to enter a multimillion-dollar suburb for just a fraction of the price of houses in the same suburb.”
Some of the suburbs with the largest difference between house and unit median prices were Toorak, Hawthorn and Caulfield North.
Toorak, in Melbourne’s inner city, has apartments priced around $940,000, which is less than a quarter of the suburb’s median house price of $4.6 million.
Buyers could save over $2.1 million if they purchased an apartment rather than a house in the suburb of Hawthorn, which has a median apartment price of $611,000.
Caulfield North also has a median apartment price of $611,000 and a median house price of $2.4 million.
There were nine other suburbs in Melbourne with million-dollar savings for apartment buyers, including Balwyn, South Yarra, Kew and Essendon.
The only outliers in Melbourne’s top suburbs were Brighton and Hampton, both of which had median apartment prices above $1 million — $1.08 million and $1.1 million, respectively.
Mr Simpson said that apartments are the perfect entry into the property market for many buyers.
“First home buyers should certainly consider an apartment or unit as a way of getting into the property market, with the majority of Melbourne suburbs recording median apartment prices below the $600,000 barrier,” the REIV president said.
“Smaller properties also allow buyers to build equity in their home and move up the property ladder.”
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