Macleod - a postcode deep in the suburbs of Melbourne - is seeing its property prices escalate thanks to a string of sales above the $1 million mark.
Once thought of as a budget-friendly neighbourhood, Macleod's property market is increasingly sought after by wealthy families, according to the latest Domain Group data.
Median house prices shot up by 33.4 per cent in the past 12 months, setting this average price at $867,500 - although agents expect seven-figure sales to almost become the norm.
Indeed, the past year also saw the suburb's price record broken when a family paid $1,845,000 for a builder’s own five-bedroom house in December. The previous suburb record was $1,434,000 - and this had been set just months previously.
Buyers with budgets above the $1.5 million range are thought to be considering buying property in the leafy suburb, as they may have been priced out of similar family homes in the inner and outer east of the city.
Andrew Wilson, chief economist at the Domain Group, said this trend is one that is spreading along the Greensborough train line - and this is because people can buy more for their money than is possible on the other side of the Yarra River.
"These are very well established, very leafy low-rise suburbs, that have traditionally been middle to lower priced," he remarked. "But we're now clearly seeing those buyers re-examining the middle ring of the north-east."
A master-planned community on the old site of the Mont Park Asylum called the Springthorpe estate is reputedly the most desirable part of Macleod - and it is certainly the area that commands the highest prices.
Development on the area commenced in the early 2000s, so all the property on the estate is newly-built.
