City has some of state’s most in-demand burbs

“They’re kind of buying in like a Richmond but it’s in Geelong.”

THE quest for affordable housing close to transport is driving a massive increase in demand for houses in Geelong.

Victoria’s second city took out four of the top 10 suburbs to rocket up the list of Victoria’s most in-demand on listings website realestate.com.au in the past six months.

The data shows 10 Geelong and Surf Coast suburbs are in the top 40 hot spots, with the top three — Marshall, Whittington and Newcomb (which jumped more 200 places up the chart) — having a median house price below $450,000, according to CoreLogic.

House prices in eight of these suburbs are below Melbourne’s $730,000 median house price, including Belmont, Herne Hill, Waurn Ponds, East Geelong and Gee- long West. Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said suburbs close to the train line were most popular.

“You can get housing that people like in Geelong, lots of period homes and older style homes that younger people quite like the opportunity to do up. They’re kind of buying in like a Richmond but it’s in Geelong,” Ms Conisbee said.

“The suburbs that appeared early on tended to be the ones with the best housing and now they are pushing out into the next suburbs along.

“There’s a ripple effect. They love East Geelong, they can’t afford East Geelong so they move to Newcomb and we continue to see a push along for that reason.”

Maxwell Collins Geelong agent Nick Lord said while buyers were looking beyond the inner suburbs for more affordable property, future employment options like WorkSafe, NDIS and Epworth were making the city more attractive for buyers.

“It’s given confidence for people to move from Melbourne to Geelong who may not be working there at the moment but see that it’s a future opportunity that they could fit into,” he said.

Mr Lord said Geelong offered good transport options.

“A Melbourne person doing their research would be want to be in Highton or Belmont near the ring road or in proximity to the train line — it brings Waurn Ponds in there