Melbourne's fastest growing suburbs for house prices over the year to September 2016

Some of Melbourne’s overlooked suburbs have outpaced the city’s house price growth, as value-hunters pounce on the last affordable suburbs.

St Albans and Albanvale in the north-west, Edithvale in the south-east and Werribee in the south-west clocked more than 20 per cent growth over the past year.

Highett — formerly in the shadows of Hampton and Sandringham — has now joined their ranks after breaking through the $1 million house median for the first time, Domain Group data shows.

On Saturday, a clearance rate of 78 per cent was recorded from 336 reported sales across the city, including some standout results in the under-the-radar suburbs.

Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson said another robust result from low auction numbers on Derby Day showed buyers were not distracted by the Melbourne Cup long weekend.

A man living a few doors down from 29 Beaver Street in St Albans helped his son beat five competitors to buy the three-bedroom house for $564,000. The house last sold for $510,000 just a few months ago.

Nearby Sunshine Hospital, level crossing removals in St Albans and zoning changes to allow high density in certain areas close to the station had driven growth in the suburb, Ray White’s Shaun Marijanovic said.

“People are realising that when it comes to value for money, and access to facilities, this part of the western suburbs has got it,” he said.

Some investors were reaping big windfalls simply by holding onto the property for about a year. A three-bedroom house at 309 Main Road East, St Albans, sold for $940,000 in March 2015 and re-sold for $1.47 million in June.

St Albans was now attracting buyers priced out of Sunshine and Braybrook, and Albanvale was the next stop, he said. More interstate investors were also hunting for opportunities in the area.

In the south-west, a young family from Sanctuary Lakes, Point Cook, trumped two would-be buyers and paid a near-record auction price of $1,215,000 for a four-bedroom house at 8 Watkins Grove on Saturday. The highest price achieved by auction in Werribee was $1.25 million, after a four-bedroom house at 12 Red Gum Close sold in September.

Werribee’s median house price rocketed 20.8 per cent over the year to
$406,000.
The Pacific Werribee shopping centre renovation helped to put the suburb on the map, and the East Werribee precinct was also being developed, Samantha McCarthy, of Hocking Stuart Werribee, said.

First home buyers priced out of Yarraville, Williamstown and Altona, were pushing down the western corridor, she said. “It’s always been first home buyers who are the strongest buyers out here, and I find that is still the case.”

Across the city, Highett’s median house price soared 11.4 per cent over the year to $1,025,000. Buxton director Christian Hegarty said Highett was unlikely to never catch up to Sandringham and Hampton but the price gap had narrowed.

“A lot of people who had grown up in the Hampton and Sandringham areas can’t afford to get back into where they grew up,” he said. “They have been very much the driving force of Highett and Hampton East.”

Highett’s demographic was shifting with more young couples and families moving into the area, Paul Bond of Hodges Sandringham said.

“It’s creating business opportunities in the Highett village and surrounding suburbs, which is making the area more attractive,” he said.

“There’s some very groovy bars, restaurants and coffee shops that have opened up. What was probably frowned upon as a suburb 10 or 15 years ago [with] a lot of industrial is now a really friendly, family-orientated place of great amenities and good sporting facilities.”