Eastbound and down for the apartment high life
The march of apartment living into Melbourne's outer east has gained pace over recent years, with suburbs not generally accustomed to apartment living now attaining their own share of the expanding apartment market pie.
The latest suburb to enter the fray is Bayswater, with a nine level residential building slated for 711-717 Mountain Highway. The prospective apartment project represents Bayswater's first entry into the Urban.com.au Project Database, and enforces the growing presence of apartment projects in areas that were until a short time ago the exclusive domain of detached housing.
Hudson Bond Commercial handled 711-717 Mountain Highway's sale last year, with development entity NewLee Pty Ltd now pushing through with plans for the 1,252 sqm site. Moull Murray is the architect in charge, with the project put before City of Knox during December.
At the time of 711-717 Mountain Highway's sale last year, Hudson Bond Commercial billed the site as capable of accommodating a 5 storey built form encapsulating 900sqm of retail space and 45 apartments.
The advent of 711-717 Mountain Highway now sees Bayswater join the likes of Rowville, Wantirna South, Chirnside Park and Croydon as suburbs which were formally the sole territory of detached housing, but are now receiving an increased share of higher density living options. Croydon for example is now home to the James Kerr building, with the Erfanian Developments project adding 56 apartments to the heart of Croydon during 2016.
As one of the eastern suburbs more prominent developers, Eefanian Developments will this year embark upon another Croydon apartment project at 176 Mt Dandenong Road.
Of course, the outer east's rise cannot be overviewed without mentioning Ringwood.
Whereas suburbs such as Bayswater and the like are spoken of in dozens of apartments, Ringwood can be spoken of in the thousands as much larger apartment developments enter the suburb. An established Activity Centre with a strong although predominantly low-rise apartment market, Ringwood can expect some change in the near future.
Leading the charge is Orion International Group's latest version of their pending development adjoining Eastlink (seen above) which has been dubbed The Ring.
Whilst surrounding suburbs are unlikely to reach the height of Ringwood, the general upswing of apartment projects demonstrates that there is a market for the product in the leafy outer east.