Top Melbourne Suburbs to Invest, For Budgets of Less Than $500,000

Flemington Post OfficeMELBOURNE’s once booming real-estate market has finally decelerated – and for the first time in a long time, buyers are calling the shots.

If you have a secure job, low debt and a will to own real estate – banks, developers and the Government want to talk.

But a word of advice: if you do take the plunge, spend what you can afford, rather than the maximum amount you can borrow.

Saturday Domain talks to some experts on which suburbs you should look at, no matter what your budget:

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Vasey RSL Care Sells Hawthorn Hostel For $7 Million

VASEY RSL Care has reaped almost $7 million from the sale of a disused hostel on a massive block of land in one of Hawthorn’s more revered streets.

The 3560 square metre block at 20 Lisson Grove not far from the Yarra River and Richmond border is understood to have sold to a residential developer, but this could not be confirmed with Kliger Wood selling agents Nick Breheny or Eugene Wood.

Not far away on the corner of Lisson Grove and Glenferrie Road, the former Hawthorn Receptions Centre hit the market earlier this month with price expectations of about $8.5 million.

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Vasey RSL To Sell Hawthorn Hostel For $7 Million

ANOTHER property in Lisson Grove, one of Hawthorn’s most revered tree-lined streets, may be replaced with a medium density, luxury apartment village.

At #20, Vasey RSL Care has listed for sale a 3560 square metre hostel that is being marketed as a development site, and is expected to sell for about $7 million.

The property includes a historic building up front, and a 1960s rear extension with a communal kitchen, dining  and recreation rooms and 58 independent living units mostly configured as bedsits and one-bedroom flats.

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Pratt Family Offload Prominent Hawthorn Development Site

THE Pratt family’s investment vehicle, Thorney Holdings, has decided against redeveloping Hawthorn’s derelict California Hotel.

Run for 20 years by the Alex Waislitz, the son-in-law of the late Richard Pratt (pictured, right), the intensely private company purchased the 7799 square metre site at 138 Barkers Road (pictured, far right) in 2007.

In 2009, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal approved a proposal which would see the 82-room hotel demolished and replaced with a $42 million 87-unit residential apartment complex rising five levels.

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Top End Market May be Deflating Faster Than First Thought

MELBOURNE’s top-end may be deflating faster than some agents would have you believe.

In St Kilda West, a historic waterfront four-level mansion with six bedrooms on Beaconsfield Parade has just been discounted to $4.95 million after failing to sell last June for $7 million.

Around the corner in tree-lined Mary Street, Channel Nine managing director Jeff Browne is asking $3.975 million for his outgoing terrace after it failed to sell at auction in February, with price expectations of up to $4.4 million.

At another Mary Street, in Hawthorn, a modern family home was discounted this week to $4.65 million after being advertised for most of the year at $4.95 million.

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Arthouse Cinema Coming to Hawthorn

TRAFFIC in busy Glenferrie Road looks set to intensify if the Boroondara council approves an application to redevelop a dank, part-vacant arcade into a new shopping centre, topped by a 1050 seat arthouse theatre and a 100-seat rooftop cinema.

Independent theatre operator Eddie Tamir has applied to rebuild The Glen arcade at 673 – 681 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, with The Lido, a new ITN Architects designed cinema complex.

Tamir owns Belgrave’s Cameo Cinema and is a co-owner of renovated movie house The Classic, in Elsternwick.

With his father David, who owns Prahran’s Station Hotel and the Argo, in South Yarra, Eddie paid $15 million for the double-storey Hawthorn facility last August.

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Hawthorn East School Converted Into Prestige Street

HAWTHORN East’s former Preshil School site has re-opened as a small, new housing estate.

A spokeswoman for the Boroondara Council said a Plan of Subdivision was certified on July 9, in which Daniel Court replaces a site previously known as 462 – 466 Barker Road.

The planning application to replace the school with a new street was lodged in early 2006.

Daniel Court has eight blocks, ranging in area from about 550 square metres to just over 720 square metres.

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David Parkin to Sell Mothers House, Hawthorn

AFL legend David Parkin, and his brother Des, a medical researcher, are selling the Hawthorn home that his belonged to the Parkin family for five generations.

The five-bedroom rendered bungalow at 39 Denham Street is located directly opposite St James Park where the Parkin boys perfected their football, cricket, and lawn bowling skills.

Currently configured as a three bedroom house, with formal and informal dining areas, the 1920s dwelling includes many original features such as a panelled entrance foyer, leadlights, open fire places, beamed ceilings and timber floors.

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Sydney Based Healthbridge Confirmed as Hawthorn Office Buyer

A HEALTH based fund controlled by Sydney-based manager Ironbridge has been revealed as the buyer of Hawthorn’s prominent 50 Burwood Road office, abutting the Hawthorn train station.

Healthbridge Property Hawthorn Pty Ltd paid a speculated $17.1 million for the four-level, 5247 square metre office, formerly owned by VECCHI.

Ragg Weir Accounting, a tenant in the building, offered a relocation incentive to surrender their lease prior to Healthbridge settling on the property, has now leased an 1100 square metre office at LAS Investments 108 Power Street office, near the corner of Burwood Road.

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Health Group Pays $17.1 Million For Hawthorn Office

RESIDENTIAL developers keen to get their hands on a prime 4152 square metre (or an “acre”) site abutting the Hawthorn train station have been left disappointed, with an owner occupier snapping up the Burwood Road property for $17.1 million.

Colliers International director Rob Joyes, who sold the 50 Burwood Road office with Peter Bremner, said a health-related group will redevelop the building into a specialist medical centre.

The 5246 square metre office building was marketed with a permit for a 2500 square metre extension, and included 174 car spaces.

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Babcock & Brown Consortium Sells Lisson Grove, Hawthorn Development Site

A DEVELOPMENT consortium including Babcock & Brown, and prominent local developer Joseph Gersh, is selling off assets as part of a property reweighting.
 
In Hawthorn’s ritzy Lisson Grove, the consortium has reaped $5.25 million from the sale of a 3,697 square metre block of land with a permit for a luxury 21-unit apartment building.
 
New plans for the site, lodged with council in September, are for a 4-level, 81-unit complex.

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Hamton, ISPT Forge With Plans to Develop $200 Million Riverfront Village, Abbotsford

THE development consortium which bought three low-rise offices on the banks of the Yarra River, is forging ahead with plans to demolish two of the buildings, and replace the space with a $200 million residential village.
 
Developers Hamton and Industry Superannuation Property Trust have started marketing apartments at 677 – 679 Victoria Street, opposite the Victoria Gardens shopping centre in Abbotsford, at the suburb border of Kew and Hawthorn.

The developers are reported to have paid Becton about $30 million for the office complex late last year, outmuscling traditional property investors sniffing the market out at the time for good bargains.

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Mirvac Abandons Plans to Build $120 Million Office in Hawthorn, Puts Site on the Market

MIRVAC has abandoned plans to build a $120 million office building in Burwood Road, Hawthorn, in Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs.
 
The Sydney-based developer has decided to sell the 5,000 square metre development site, months after obtaining VCAT approval to build a 5-level, 18,800 square metre office, with 557 car parks.
 
Mirvac can expect to make about $12 million for the 291 – 311 Burwood Road site. 

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