If you want to live in Northcote but can’t afford it, next stop Thornbury and next stop after that – Preston. At circa 9 km from the CBD, you are still “inner city” and in the uber hip “inner north”.
Preston’s gentrification journey is well under way (median house price $1.15m 2022) with young professional singles, couple and families replacing the traditional working class predominantly Anglo, Italian and Greek residents.
In spite of this, Preston is still a diverse suburb in terms of the ethnicity, socio-economic status and age brackets of its residents. Increasingly, it is a “first choice” suburb for buyers – particularly young professional couples where one or both have workplaces in the CBD or CBD fringe.
Broadly speaking, the better areas of the suburb are in the west where there are some beautiful heritage homes on large blocks that are walking distance to the market, train station and cafes/restaurants/retail on High Street.
The suburb is very well-catered for in terms of green spaces with multiple parks including Ray Brabham Gardens, A.H. Capp Reserve Payground, Newman Reserve.
There is also a shopping centre located in the north eastern section of the suburb – Northland Shopping Centre – with over 330 shops including Myer, Target, Kmart, Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and a Hoyts cinema complex too for movie-lovers.
There are pockets of Preston to the eastern section of the suburb which should definitely be avoided given the concentration of circa 1950s/60s Housing Commission dwellings and their longer distance from High Street and the train station. Based on my experience, this area is unlikely to ever become desirable.
The proliferation of apartment and townhouse development, often of poor-quality design/construction, is problematic and requires careful due diligence to ensure that they don’t negatively impact the property you purchase.
It is concerning the potential impact of a proposed apartment development which would take the place of stalls at Preston’s 50 year-old market – a wonderful and well utilised community asset.
In a general sense, prospective Preston property buyers need to be very careful about the risks of high density development in the locality they are considering buying in.
Last update: 21 Feb 2023
