Mentone, once the playground of the well-to- do is being rediscovered, writes Jenny Brown.  After being baptized as the bell of the bay or, in 1884 promotional literature. “the Riviera of the south” – a beach resort for the wealthy land boomers of one of  the worlds riches cities of the time – it has taken Mentone the best part of a century to emerge from the shadows of it’s more fashionable neighbors and rejoin the ranks of blue-chip bayside real estate.

The Cinderella suburb has certain streets on the beach-side, below Balcombe Road, that now compete with the pricier parts of Beaumaris, Black Rock and Sandringham.  “It is,” As Hodges Mentone agent Andrew Plousi says “amazing how Mentone has kicked on since 2007.”

Since Beaumaris priced itself beyond means of many who were ambitious to relocate, renovate or rebuild in the sunny south, houses in targeted streets within walking distance from Mentone shoreline have risen to the degree that even knockdowns can sell for $1 million-plus.

Mr. Plousi estimates that since the start of summer, the value-add in the top streets with single dwelling covenants – Sea Parade, Marina Road and Mundy Street – has been about 10% and “moving up and up.”

A five bedroom house with views in Mundy Street was valued at $1.7 million, a price boost being helped not only by local interest and competition from migrant British, South African and Russian bidders, (“half the bidders at auction have accents”) but all so by offshore buyers speedily securing portfolios of high-end Mentone residential.

Mr. Plousi had a client who flees in form China every three months to buy two or three properties he has assessed on the internet. “He flees in then flies out and buys the most expensive houses he can lay his hands on.”

Why wouldn’t Mentone hit the high time again? To the director of the Thomson Mentone Agency, Mark Pearman, it has everything. “Diversity, schools, superb public transport. It has a better beach than Beaumaris or Black Rock…and it has cosmopolitan variety. That’s what I love about Mentone.”

It has a quiet shopping village, with butchers, bankers, drapers and greengrocers, dominated by a village tower belonging to the 1887 Coffee Palace that is now Kilbreda College, one of four private schools in the area.  School children, both private and state, walk or ride their bikes. Others stream in from the station.  “The schools are a real draw card for the families,” Mr. Pearman says. “Traditionally, families move in for 15 to 20 years for schooling and then they just stay on in the area.” He is always amazed at the number of elderly people he meets. “So many 90-year-olds. The sea air seems to be good for them.”

Lloyd Brown, rising 90, and his wife, Marion, moved to Mentone 33 years ago and a few years back chose to hop from their island family house to a 1970’s unit on Beach Road with a view of the sea.  “It’s our patch,” Mr. Brown says. “The sea gives it an atmosphere that makes it feel like we were always on holidays, “It’s slow. Nobody is running and there are a lot of ‘gerries’ in Coles. It’s casual. People have got time: they smile at you. We have everything we want here and it’s like being on holidays all the time, it’s unique.”

The historic inheritance of Mentone’s original footprint keeps it quietly special. The wide streets of the first 1884 subdivision – “Well-laid streets that were curved to add variety and to follow the natural terrain of the sand dunes” – were named by a land boomer.  Matthew Davies, for Italian cities: Florence, Naples, Venice, Brindisi, Palermo and Milan.  The township which could be reached by rail since 1881 was named for an Italian resort and, until the bank crush of the 1980’s, Davies posh village did attract the worthies. The wealthy built boom-style towered mansions and Victorian weekend villas on big estates and the painters captured the beauty of the place. The Heidelherg School was first convened on the cliffs at Mentone.

Mr. Davies built the posh Coffee Palace, Charles Figgis designed the imposing 1899 beachside Mentone Hotel, which has its own sports ground.  Mentone also has movie houses, a skating rink and racetrack and until the 1920’s was quite the place to visit for a holiday or picnic.  With suburban infill occurring closer to Melbourne and with Beaumaris being carved out of the tea-trees  in the 1950s.

Mentone went into sleepy-hollow mode and much of its inherent aesthetic was subsequently damaged by the mass flat-and-villa building throughout the 1970s and 1980s.  Mr. Pearman estimates that as much as half of Mentone’s housing stock is villa units but even these are being priced beyond first home buyers, selling well into the mid-$500,000s. New townhouses can be brought from $600,000 to $800,000.  “Mentone is a very devise market and the (median) results mean it hasn’t been getting a lot of attention.” Mr. Pearman says. “In my opinion, although beachside is not far to being equal to Beaumaris, it is still undervalued.

“The question is, do people want to be kilometer closer to the city than Beaumaris and live with more trees but consistency of family housing? “Or do they want what Mentone offers, with is more schools, a better beach, better public transport and more individual housing? I still think it has a way to go.”

The Real Estate Institute of Victoria survey showed at the height of the financial crisis – during the 2009 March quarter – the median price for a unit or apartment was $360,000, compared with the December 2008 figure of $365,000.

The relative stability in the apartment market can be attributed to consumer rush to calm federal and state government first home-buyer financial assistance, according to institute’s CEO Enzo Riamondo.

“At the time when rental market is still tight and interest rates are historically low, this incentive to buy reflected in only a slight lowering of the quietly medium,” He said.

Brighton topped the list of most expensive suburbs for units and apartments, with a median of $685,000. In fact, all suburbs in the top 10 were valued than the overall March median for the unit and apartment. Market sector.

In the top 5 most affordable suburbs, Carlton, which is dominated by student housing, was most affordable with a median price of $205,000, ahead of Werribee, Footscray, Frankston and Sunbury.

The REIV has welcomed combined auction by the state and federal governments to continue grants, boost and bounces for first home buyers. Mr. Raimondo says extending of the assistance of the assistance would help thousands of more first home buyers purchase their first homes.

“As of July 1, a first home buyer in Victoria will be eligible for $16,000 for an established home and $12,500 after September 30 in combined assistance from the state’s grant and bonus and Federal Government’s boost,” he says.

“Without the decision in both budgets first home buyers would have been left with only $7,000 grant. The REIV welcomes not only the extension but the sensible decision to phase the boost out rather than end it suddenly.”

Melbourne’s apartment market is driven up by one of the fastest grown demographics in the country – singles aged in their 20s to 60s from – according to KPMG partner, Bernard Salt, who says twenty something’s to sixty something’s singles increasingly see units and apartments as a lifestyle alternative to houses.

As such, medium and high density living is no longer seen as the poor cushion of “real living”, he says.

“There are a number of different tribe’s who have preference for an apartment or unit, over a traditional house,” says Salt. “And the tribes are growing quite rapidly. Many empty nesters are finding they are sick of the garden, sick of the commitment their home might demand, and are questioning whether they really need the space anymore,

“Their interests in cosmopolitan life has been piped by their Generation Y kids, and they are selling up and out of the burbs to units and apartments, in locations closer to their interests.”

According to Real Estate Source an analysis of annualized apartment sales figures carried out late last year suggested that only three of the top ten best performing suburbs were city-fringe.

It showed units and apartments in previously highly sort-after suburbs such as West Melbourne, Port Melbourne and Footscray recorded negative or negligible median growth, while those in Mordialloc – around 25 kilometers from the CDB – were the best performing on Port Philip Bay.

Many major developments have attracted objections from surrounding residents and were only built after appeals to Victoria’s planning tribunal. Pace Development Group’s Daryl Wilkinson said concerns usually related to overlooking but the developer adhered to planning rules. Kingston Council strategic planning and building manager Jonathan Guttmann said policy encouraged medium-density housing around centers with public transport. He said more development were likely as housing projects around Waterways, Epsom and Aspendale Gardens were completed.