Suburb Profile – Belmont 3216

Jul 15, 2018/Cate Bakos

This Sunday’s blog could be forgiven for appearing like a foodie’s write up (except I am no foodie.) Yesterday I enjoyed my observations in sunny Belmont. The recent changes within this nine square kilometre patch just south of Geelong’s CBD, and home to over 13,000 people is a fascinating case study.

Geelong has experienced impressive capital growth over the past few years and in the face of what could only be described as a correction for the Melbourne market, this secondary city seems to be defying the same negative market forces that our capital city is experiencing for the housing market.

While it’s fair to point out that Melbourne is tracking with a two-speed market thanks to our lending constraints for larger-sum borrowers, (adversely impacting house purchasers but broadly supporting unit and apartment purchasers), Geelong has other drivers at play beyond bank lending favour.

Belmont has experienced marked growth as a result of gentrification.

Offering easy access to Geelong city, convenient public transport connections to Melbourne, an array of well-regarded schools, the stunning Barwon River, and a particularly homely array of mid-century family homes, it’s little surprise it’s captured hearts and become a drawcard for young families and first home buyers. Both local buyers from Geelong and city buyers (Melbourne and interstate) are circling this suburb to call home and our number of home-finder purchasers in this area are testament to this.

The problem is that the supply is totally outstripped by the demand.

As a result, we’ve witnessed some particularly strong (and unprecedented) sales results in Belmont and we have found it very competitive. Balancing sensibility with a client’s desirability in a heated market is a challenge for any advocate, and gauging when a price tag is beyond a competitive stretch and inching towards an overpayment is crucial. In auction scenarios, overpayments can lead to all kinds of disaster including bank valuation shortfalls and deposit losses at worst.

We remembered assisting a lovely couple a year ago with their Belmont-dream strategy and their despondence after several auction losses was palpable, but we secured their home several months later with elation after the planets aligned favourably for them.

This year is just as challenging for Belmont buyers, if not more so.

Agent quote ranges are not all that helpful in many situations, and to compound the difficulty for young buyers, many are adopting the “best and highest” approach which sees buyers submitting one offer under a time-controlled tender process. Just last week we had geared up for an auction at Polwarth Crescent in Belmont, price quoted $500,000 – $550,000 but ridiculously pitched at this level with compelling sales results suggesting to us that an early sixes price tag could easily be anticipated. We guided our clients carefully to consider their walk-away figure and by Wednesday we received the dreaded call that another buyer had submitted an offer that had tempted the vendors to sell their beautifully renovated 1970’s four bedroom home before the auction date.

We had 24 hours to conduct our due diligence and submit our best offer.

That we did, but $631,100 just wasn’t enough. The agents received a sea of offers, many of them eclipsing mid sixes. The property sold for $680,000. My phone call felt like a devastating blow that night to our dear clients but we’ll have them back on the search in no time, and my positivity around the emerging spring market is genuine.

Yesterday’s attempt to secure this suberbly located, but lack-lustre cream brick house in desperate need of love was a much anticipated auction. Happily, the sale did progress to auction for us (in spite of many others receiving strong offers prior). We had appraised the property at mid fives and despite giving it our best bidding attempt, three other buyers (including a buyer’s advocate) fought us for it and it sold to a lady on her phone (possibly for her children) for $558,000 and we were the underbidders. The stunning court location in Bohan Drive was beautifully showcased on the sunny winter’s day without a cloud in the sky.

Belmont’s gentrification certainly hasn’t reached maturity, but it is well underway.

Fever-pitch house sale prices are only one indicator, but looking beneath the auction results and focusing on the demographic shift is intriguing. What has always been known as an ‘older’ area with classic 60’s and 70’s brick houses, rose bush gardens and ‘Nanna and Grandad’ streetscapes is rapidly become home to the twenty and thirty-somethings.

Cafes are popping up, changing, being over-hauled, renamed and are now enjoying a constant buzz of patronage. Finding a car park at the local shopping strip on High St is nothing short of difficult. Coffees are no longer the traditional $3.50 cappuccino-type offering.

We now have cold filter coffee, paleo cakes and every possible derivation of avocado for breakfast on offer in Belmont.

Cafes like this, with their specialty coffee and cake prices that would distress any pensioner are not only a significant change for the area, but are popping up in response to this new high-disposable-income and cafe-searching demographic that are choosing to call Belmont home.

A recent article in Domain and the Financial Review comments on the leading statistical indicators of gentrifcation, but I particularly liked this article of Peter Koulizos’s that suggests single origin coffee and barista’s with Ned Kelly beards are sure signs. There is no doubt that areas boasting an increased median household income will demand particular cuisines, services and shops to meet their residents’ desire to spend their surplus incomes.

Belmont is now home to some of the best coffee and avocado-breakfasts on offer in Victoria.

A simple scan over Broadsheet or some of the foodie blogs quickly points out cafes such as Woodhouse, 2 Little Birds, Lavish and others are not only on stage, but are hitting the mark for their new and emerging demographic.

Geelong (and Belmont) still present a challenge for some in relation to employer commute-time and distance from family and friends who may be in the capital cities, but what it does have on offer can’t be underestimated.

Belmont (and other rapidly gentrifying areas) will make themselves obvious to investors and home-owners alike if buyers just look for newcomers on food blog sites, new cafes ditching Egg and Bacon toasted sandwiches and cappuccinos in favour of cold filter or single origin coffee, breakfast with flower petals and smashed avo, or anything ‘deconstructed’,