I had the option to work in South Yarra or Melbourne and I’m very happy I chose South Yarra. We specialise in the South Yarra and Toorak market and we’ve been through the waves. We went through the GFC downtown after the market was surging along, and then it bounced back again. After the GFC we had the boom in 2010 and South Yarra went up by 19%. It eased off between 2011-12, the market was exhausted and it probably went back about 7%. It picked itself up in 2013, and we thought we’d probably reach the same appreciation we had in 2010. We did get there with some results, but not quite. We had a fair hit in 2014 because there were a lot of properties sold.

South Yarra has always proven to be a good area to invest in. There are some crazy prices out there, but it comes down to the buyer’s emotion and what their needs are. Over the last couple of few years, South Yarra and the surrounding areas have gone through some changes. A couple of high rises have gone up in the commercial zone area, and that’s thrown a couple of challenges for real estate agents, especially reselling. Buyers should beware of buying off the plan because it’s hard to predict what the market is going to do. There is a shortage of supply in South Yarra, which isn’t a very big suburb anyway. It’s got a very big profile and everyone wants to live the lifestyle offered here. 

Numbers are always fairly strong at open for inspections in South Yarra because it’s an area people want to be in. We are seeing a sense of urgency. People are reading the papers and watching TV and feeling like they’re going to miss out, which helps our business. On the flip side people are looking at properties and are prepared to pick it apart – it doesn’t have a balcony, it’s on a main road etc. 

Unless it’s a stand out property they are holding back from buying right away.