Kew: Why affluent buyers can't get enough of one of Melbourne's oldest suburbs

Jesse Davidson has been at the helm of popular Italian restaurant Centonove for 21 years but says he has never felt as close to Melbourne’s Kew community as he does now, after six long lockdowns.

The business morphed from special-occasion diner to serving takeaway coffees, sandwiches and pastries, and on some days served up to 1000 customers.

Creating connections

“The five-kilometre bubble that we’ve had to live in for the last 18 months has been amazing for our business,” Davidson says.

“We’ve got to know each person so much better and it’s really brought our whole neighbourhood a lot closer together, with more working between the shopowners.”

The local businesses have now reopened for normal trade, with Davidson’s latest venture, Bar Alba, given a warm welcome when it opened its doors in October.

Located directly opposite Centonove in the middle of the Cotham Road shopping strip, the new wine bar is a direct reflection of Davidson’s confidence in the community.

“We were getting lots of love and support even when the restaurant wasn’t open,” Davidson says.

“There’s not another bar like this anywhere in the area so we built it for the locals.”

The locals are largely white-collar professionals with families looking for top schools in a peaceful suburb not far from the city centre.

“When people think of Kew they probably think of [it being] old and conservative, but it’s also the school capital of Australia,” Davidson says.

“There are a lot of middle to upper-class families with kids in the private school system here.”

You’ll find Xavier College, Carey Baptist Grammar School and Methodist Ladies’ College in the suburb alongside Ruyton Girls’ School, Trinity Grammar School, Genazzano FCJ College, Preshil School and Kew High School, as well as three primary schools.

Jellis Craig & Company agent Lloyd Lawton says many inner-city professionals, including doctors, lawyers, architects and chief executives, move to Kew when the kids reach high-school age.

Period delights

“It’s an old suburb dating back to the 1800s, so there are a lot of period homes including Victorians and Edwardians right through to mid-century homes,” Lawton says.

Some of the best examples can be found in the Studley Park precinct, where heritage overlays preserve the beautiful character homes and streetscapes.

The riverfront parkland here is a magnet for walkers and cyclists and adjoins the Yarra Bend golf course.

For buyers looking for more contemporary dwellings, the Sackville Ward in the suburb’s south-east corner has a mix of new builds among the grand period homes.

Top sales this year include: 4 Kevin Grove, which sold for $6.65 million; 8 Alfred Street, which sold for $9.95 million; and 126 Sackville Street which sold for $10.37 million.

One to watch

Set on a 1682-square-metre block with a tennis court, Mynda is an 1884 Victorian villa given a new lease of life by its architect and artist owners.

The property features a glass-enclosed living room, a foyer crowned with a timber-panelled clerestory tower and a Gaggenau-appointed kitchen.

Jellis Craig & Company’s Lloyd Lawton is taking expressions of interest until November 19 with a guide of $6 million-$6.5 million.

SOLD - $6,000,000

5 Molesworth Street, Kew VIC 3101

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