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LOCAL NEWS
The best places for Melbourne first-
home buyers are not close to the city
“Want house? Must travel” —
that might be the new mantra for
Melbourne’s first-home buyers,
with new data showing the most
affordable entry-level houses are
dozens of kilometres away from
the city centre, in the Yarra Valley
or Melton.
half of the city’s youth will be able
to conveniently access the
majority of jobs by 2031. Group chief data scientist Nicola
Powell said. “As the population
grows and housing sprawls even
further, it puts more and more based on the Australian Bureau
of Statistics’ average home loan
size for first-home buyers over
12 months to March 2017, plus
The drive from Millgrove to the
city centre is about an hour and
forty minutes. Public transport is
closer to two hours each way. And
it will take about an hour and 15
minutes to drive to Dandenong
or Clayton, two of the city’s south-
east job hubs.
“It is important that people are
in a locality close to where they
work, or if they are not, there needs
to be good infrastructure and
public transport to allow people
to commute to work,” Domain pressure on governmen ts to
provide that infrastructure for
people to live a good life.” the recommended 20 per cent
deposit and and adding relevant
first home owner grants within
Victoria.
The Andrews government in
March announced it would double
of the first-home owners’ grant to
$20,000 in regional Victoria from
July 1. It will also abolish stamp
duty for first-home buyers on
properties up to $600,000 and
offer cuts to those up to $750,000.
Melbourne had just 14 suburbs
under the median price for houses,
The Domain Group’s first-
home buyers report, released on
Friday, names the town of
Millgrove – 70 kilometres east of
the CBD in the Yarra Valley – as
the most affordable place in
greater Melbourne to buy a house.
Melton South, Melton,
Kurunjang and Melton West – all
44 to 46 kilometres west of the
CBD – rounded out the top five
most affordable suburbs for first-
timers to buy the Australian dream.
The data follows an ongoing
debate about housing affordability
in the country, largely centred
around the spending and saving
habits of millennial first-home
buyers.
Though it shows houses are
still within reach in the state, it is
clear first-home buyers will have
to look significantly further from
the city centre – Melbourne’s key
job hub. Research has shown
Melbourne’s jobs will continue to
be highly concentrated in the
CBD in coming years, with fears
The suburbs of Dallas, 19
kilometres north, and Werribee,
32 kilometres west, were the
most affordable suburbs closest
to the CBD with median house
prices at $395,000 and $412,000,
respectively.
The report determined the
median price cut-off for Victorian
first home buyers was $412,281,
but more than 70 suburbs for units.
Those happy to concede on
the house and opt for a unit will
also have more luck getting closer
to the city, but have just two
options within a 20 kilometres
radius of the CBD. Albion, 15
kilometres west, has a median
unit price of just $225,000 and
17 kilometres, Broadmeadows
has a median of $320,000.
“Perhaps we need to look at,
what do we define as a first
home?” said Dr Powell. “For our
parents and our parents’parents,
the definition was a single
residential home on quarter-acre
parcel of land. But perhaps we’re
moving away from that and units
will allow people to live close to
the city centre.”
The picture for Melbourne first
timers is clearly rosier than their
compatriots north of the border.
Sydney first-home buyers were
mostly looking at between 46
kilometres to 107 kilometres from
the city to get into the detached
housing market.
For those who do wish to stay
close to the centre of a capital
city, the report suggests looking
at Hobart, where the most
affordable suburbs for houses are
on average 19 kilometres from
the CBD and seven kilometres
for units.
Fears for former Neighbours Police reveal identity of man found
actor missing in Melbourne dead in Melbourne wheelie bin
FEARS are growing for a former
Neighbours actor who has
disappeared in Melbourne.
Troy Beckwith was last seen in
Cranbourne at
11 a m
on
Wednesday and
has not been
answering his
phone.
Police and
family members
hold concerns for
his welfare as he
has a medical
condition. He
was last seen wearing blue jeans,
a black jacket and black and red
runners. It’s believed Mr Beckwith
drove off in a green 1999 model Ford
Falcon with registration 1AJ5CQ.
Cranbourne Police Sen-
Constable Kristen Hill said Mr
Beckwith could be staying in hostels
in the Melbourne CBD but may be
trying to remain undetected.
“He’s got his mobile phone, his
13
June, 2017
personal belongings,” Sen-
Constable Hill said.
“(On Wednesday morning) he
contacted his partner, saying an
appointment had
been cancelled
and that was the
last time she heard
from him.”
Sen-Constable
Hill said his family
were worried and
urged him to make
contact
with
someone. Mr
Beckwith made
fame in his teenage years with roles
in popular Australian TV shows
including Neighbours. He played
Michael Martin between 1991 and
1998. He was a lead character in
the children’s series Pugwall, in the
role of keyboard player Jeremy
“Bazza” Bazlington. Mr Beckwith
was described as caucasian, about
180cm tall with brown hair and brown
eyes.
Detectives have released a photo of a man
whose body was discovered stuffed into a
Melbourne wheelie bin, as police continue their
investigation into who dumped it there.
The body has been identified as that of Ashley
Phillips, a 44-year-old man from Broadmeadows.
A garbage truck driver picked up a bin on
Butler Street in Preston about 8am on Saturday
and watched on his video monitor as a body
dropped into the truck.
Detective Sergeant Mark Butterworth said
the bin didn’t belong to the home where it was
picked up from. "The bin isn't from the immediate
area where the pick-up was made," he said.
It was also not bin collection day in the area,
with a resident calling Darebin Council and
asking for the bin to be picked up.
"I'm not in a position to describe the condition
of the body until such time as a post-mortem
examination has been made," Det. Sgt
Butterworth said.
The man was wearing a t-shirt with the symbol
for Korean band Big Bang’s 2015 world tour –
an unusual item that investigators had hoped
someone will recognise.
Police are appealing for anyone that may
have seen any suspicious activity at the
intersection of Young and Butler streets or the
surrounding area to contact Crime Stoppers
on 1800 333 000.
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