Agents tip price growth near Cranbourne-Pakenham line level crossings after grade separation
- June 27, 2015
Some real estate agents expect house prices to rise when level crossings in Melbourne’s south go underground.
PROPERTY prices in the streets near Ormond, Bentleigh and McKinnon stations and near level crossings along the Cranbourne-Pakenham line are tipped to rise when grade separation works are complete.
Real estate agents agree the Andrews Government’s promised removal of seven dangerous, congested level crossings in Glen Eira will boost the surrounding suburbs’ livability and desirability.
Most expect price growth in the streets immediately around the level crossings and closest to the peak hour bottlenecks, while a few are unsure if it will make a noticeable price difference.
All agree it is hard to put a figure on how much prices could rise.
Buxton Bentleigh director Craig Williamson said premium properties immediately around level crossings could rise by up to 5 per cent when the railway lines were put underground.
That, he said, could add $100,000 to a $2 million property.“This type of thing could add 3 per cent on top of annual price growth and 5 per cent in immediate areas,” he said.
“Holistically, the entire area becomes more appealing. It’s going to add to the desirability and that demand intensifies competition and that drives prices.”
Josh Hommelhoff, from Ray White Carnegie, said promised grade separation in Carnegie and Murrumbeena would push prices up in those suburbs.
“I’ve always said that once that happens values can only go one way and that’s up,” he said.”
He said level crossings impacted on property prices there.
“If you are buying north of the railway line in Carnegie or Murrumbeena it generally means slightly higher prices,” he said.
Kim Easterbrook, managing director of Elite Property Advisory in Brighton, said she expected livability and “sellability” benefits.
“I don’t believe there will be a direct impact on property prices in the surrounding streets and suburbs due to the removal of the level crossings,” she said.
“What I would say though that it will certainly help with the livability of the suburb, meaning that it should unlock some of the traffic congestion around the crossings and therefore people will enjoy living in the immediate area more so.”
“What it could do is assist with the sellability of the properties in the immediate proximity of the boom gates.”
Woodards Bentleigh director John Pollard said it would be “fantastic” from a local point of view but doubted if it would impact on prices.
“I don’t believe there’s a change in dollar value there,” he said.
Grade separation at Ormond, Bentleigh and McKinnon and on the Cranbourne-Pakenham line is expected to be complete by 2018.
Glen Eira Debates 
June 27, 2015 at 11:29 AM
No surprises re price rises.
What’s gonna be the killer is all the high density housing that’s going to go up around them. The concept plans issued a while ago show what’s going to happen at the Stations themselves.
Carnegie is already getting 12 storeys in the streets surrounding the stations – is only a short stop away. Ditto on the Frankston line.
June 27, 2015 at 11:43 AM
it will be a solution for about 5 minutes. By the time they are all constructed population growth will mean traffic will be at a stand still in Glen Eira. They do not have the courage to build apartments without car parking. Will there be any pressure on the MRC to let sporting clubs use Caulfield Racecourse as several sporting clubs will be displaced by dirt from the North Road construction being stored there. I notice the CRRT website has mysteriously reappeared!
June 27, 2015 at 1:16 PM
Agents exist to make money from other people buying and selling property and clearly have a vested interest in encouraging government to spend money inflating their profits. The grade separations themselves are struggling. The “design concepts” from a Consortium haven’t evolved yet into actual plans. We have two government bodies engaging in internecine warfare with each other over transport policy: DoT and PTV. Neither has a coherent strategy for the future.
Surrounding the railway stations will now be poorly designed towers by order of VCAT. Land Council claims it wants for public open space is to be sacrificed to offset the cost of grade separation. Along Koornang Rd and Neerim Rd will need to be yet more sets of traffic lights to manage all the traffic that currently takes unacceptable risks to enter congested roads. Nobody other than Council is silly enough to claim that traffic will reduce as a result of Council’s policies. Federal Government exercises its temporary wartime powers to collect income tax from Victorians but insists none of it can be spent on urban rail projects, preferring to subsidize the trucking industry.
If Council was serious about planning, then the planning scheme would be continually reviewed, progress monitored, new metrics established and regularly reported, “future strategic work” actually tackled. Instead the current mess is to be retained in perpetuity. And VCAT still hasn’t released its Master Plan for Carnegie, having replaced GECC as Planning Authority.
June 27, 2015 at 4:12 PM
a beat-up if I have read one, written by a real estate agent, signed by the jorno, its 2015 honesty and ethics ended years ago