I'd be interested to know why no one seems to have the foresight to compare suburbs on their proximity to a cad as opposed to melbourne cbd? I think Seaford will appreciate in the future based on its proximity to frankston. Frankston I believe will be a mini melbourne cbd in the future especially if swinbourne establish a campus there.
As much as I like the idea of Frankston being a suburban centre, the track record of these centres isn't so good. Just because it's in a government plan does not mean it's going to happen.
An example is the District Centres policy of the 1950s, where certain centres (eg Moorabbin & Box Hill) were nominated as satellite centres. Box Hill did develop as a centre, but still has fewer jobs than Clayton or Tullamarine.
Moorabbin failed; today is a traffic sewer surrounding an ugly railway station that lost its local government status. Local residents are resisting a social housing project mooted for the area. Meanwhile nearby Southland kept growing, and even expanded across the Nepean Hwy. Central Footscray (another planned centre) is similarly a squalid slum while Highpoint has thrived.
Hence basing investment decisions on government plans for an area (that may or may not happen) is risky. Better to look at where private money is going as well.
And looking at the beachside suburbs north and south of seaford one must conclude melbournians do indeed rate proximity to the coastline highly
But nowhere near as highly as (say) Sydneysiders rank their northern beach suburbs 30-40 odd km from the CBD.
& contrary to your statement the entire area beachside of the freeway in seaford is walking distance to the beach.
Sure you can walk it, but I suspect most families, with their frisbees, shade tents, towels etc would drive rather than walk.
And if you asked a sample of people who live within walking distance of the beach how often they frequent the beach I believe your 5 times a year statement will be proven far from correct - I live within walking distance to the beach & walk the beach with my dog every wkend, usually more.
Agreed. But that's a skewed sample - those who like the beach are more likely than average to live near it.
A better survey method would be to compare the % of prospective buyers who value living near the beach versus other attractions eg work and education, as well as factors like a particular house and family ties.
I also think that whilst seaford is perhaps considered too far away from the city by some (which is what people said about Moorabbin & Highett 30 years ago) public transport moves more people to & from the cbd daily than do cars.
True, but the vast majority of people do not work in the CBD. And for these commuters public transport has a much lower share.
There are substantial employment concentrations in suburban Melbourne in areas such as Tullamarine and Clayton. Seaford and surrounds has much sparser employment levels. Hence the proportion of Melbourne's jobs within say a 30 minute commute much lower than a suburb like Camberwell, Oakleigh or even Springvale.
Don't get me wrong - I love parts of Seaford and the shopping area has picked up well compared to 5 years or so ago. However it's an extremely varied suburb and less than 25% of its area would be walkable (ie <10 min) of the supermarket, shopping strip, station and beach.
Areas inland of the freeway aren't so handy to the beach, and a large section of south Seaford (where most of the cheap units are) have no significant shops easily walkable and has Kananook as its local station (due to its clientele is less desirable than others on the line, and won't be getting staffing upgrades, unlike Seaford).