South Yarra - 1 Clara Street

Hi All

Partner and I are looking to buy in the 1 Clara Street, South Yarra development which is less than a year old. There's a small grassy public park still being landscaped adjacent to the building. The areas seems ok with no sign of other mid rise or high rise developments nearby.

Anyone got any opinions on the area?

Ta.

Westener71 :)
 
Is it going to be used as your PPOR or an IP?

While I personally like the suburb of South Yarra in general, I suppose it depends on your goals. To me, purely from a financial perspective, there seems to be a bit of a glut of apartments available in the area, with recent developments going up, which, in the short term at least, may restrict CG in units.
Likewise, I think there are better options in Melbourne if you were wanting it as an IP.

What sort of size floorplan is it? The other new developments in the area look to focus on squeezing as much into as little space as possible.

I don't want to put you off if you and your partner are set on it... I am considering South Yarra when my current lease is up. I would suggest doing more research on the area with your goals in mind.
 
Hi Dave_R

To answer your question, it will be our PPOR. I agree that there is currently a glut and squeezing a lot into a little is typical of this area now. The one we're looking at is approx 90 sqm in size including balcony and its away from the weekend night club strip of South Yarra.

I am worried about the glut of new developments though and how further developments are adding to the Chapel St/Toorak Road bottlenecks. It is still a nice and seemingly in demand area however.

The only other area we considered was a 2br at 505 St Kilda Road.

Appreciate your opinion(s).

Regards

Westerner71
 
wouldn't touch either of those as you not going to see much capital growth in the coming years

but if you going lifestyle reasons alone and assuming both prices are around 700-800K+ i would choose 505 st kilda rd over clara development. i've had a look at both and would say the 505 st kilda finishes and inclusions are more than clara st dev. Gaggenau kitchen, home automation, better winter garden etc. and 505 St kilda rd - are mainly penthouses as oppose to clara st dev, so the apartment facilties are catered more upscale market as opposed to clara st dev.
 
To be honest I find South Yarra very trashy these days. Too many bogans and drunken idiots on Chapel Street. The only exception is if you live in the Como/Domain precincts, but then again these areas are basically all houses. You'd probably be better off with St Kilda Road.
 
To be honest I find South Yarra very trashy these days. Too many bogans and drunken idiots on Chapel Street. The only exception is if you live in the Como/Domain precincts, but then again these areas are basically all houses. You'd probably be better off with St Kilda Road.

Spent a lot off nocturnal times in my younger days in Chapel St. The area is now much better and much cooler than it used to be. Have been dating someone who lives on Bray St not far from where Clara St development will be. The Windsor end of Chapel is extremeley cool, with eclectic bars, restaurants, all coming online in the past 12 months. The area is better than its ever been. Far less violence, disturbances and bogans than there were in the 90's.

Of course, whether that makes Clara St a good investment is another thing.
 
Thanks guys for your respective responses, see mine below....

@ Melbournian

Yes, agree that 505 St Kilda road is a higher quality development. The 2br we were looking at there was like buying 'the smallest house on the best street' or so it seemed if I can use that metaphor. We were about to buy a property there but had a bad experience with the agent and the vendor, i.e. agent misleading us on price, vendor being evasive on amending one-sided conditions in contract and ultimately then upping the price on us. We made a final offer, but they declined.


@Aaron_C

Yes, Chapel Street appears to have had better days now with seemingly only major labels and not the eclectic mix of smaller/boutique brands that I'm told it used to be. Coincidentally, a long-term Melbournian/Sydney friend of ours commented recently to us that was surprised how botany and feral it gets on weekend evenings. We agree. Not the area that I thought it was when we leased almost a year ago at Society on Bray Street.

@Buzzlightyear

Hi Buzz, we're really not sure either with Clara St. It was # 2 on our shortlist (i.e. 1st was 505 St Kilda Road, 2nd Clara St, 3rd Elm @ 22 Dorcas Street). We're looking ultimately for a demographic with less rental and more owner occupancy as this makes a huge difference in the feel and ageing of a building. The 'Society' is a nightmare to live in purely because it's more of a club-med lifestyle building being nearby nightclubs and residents allow doors to slam regularly which can be disruptive especially on weekends when many residents tend to come home between 2-3am after being out. We also get a lot of bogany types hanging around the front of the building on Friday/Sat/Sun nights and noise travels up the building.

We're trying to find somewhere upper-middle class, owner-occupied and same-sex friendly.


Ah, also, we looked at a large 1br at 1 Freshwater Place in Southbank but recoiled when we discovered Queensbridge Tower was going up 8 metres from one side of the building. We think it will hurt property values, but it was a beautiful development.

Any suggestions?
 
yeah that would be the smallest apartment there as they're all closer to the million dollar mark in 505 St kilda rd. Also heard it is pretty hard to sell those places - many are on the market and taking price downgrades to sell.

As for freshwater place as long as you're not on the western tower it should be ok. i would try to secure higher floors as at least above 40th floor to enjoy the skyclub facilities. Btw there are a lot of well know ppl and celebrities who live in freshwaterand the facilities if you ask me are among the better ones in melbourne even better than 505 St kilda ard. You could be swimming with olympic champion grant hackett in the pool etc.

south yarra in my opinon is has a major traffic issue at certain times which includes friday and saturday night and every weekday after office hours so if you're always driving then maybe it is not a good thing as oppose to if you taking public transport

stay away from elm. majority of units are very small. many of the investors who bought are now selling it below their purchase price. some of walls of the apartment are wavy as in shape which makes it hard to even place furniture and nothing spectacular about the bathrooms either. mainly comestic to achieve higher perceived value. they have a pool that is not even a pool more like a super sized tub.

but really it should be what is your budget and expectations of the investment or lifestyle. If it is investment - best put off 505 St kilda rd, freshwater, south yarra and 22 Dorcas St. e buy something older and renovate it to make a better yield or capital gain.
if it is lifestyle - i would go freshwater place.

there are a lot of owner occupiers near dorcas and bank and wells st in those areas. one would be 8 wells st - where nearly 70% are owner occupiers.
 
Hi Melbournian

Thanks for the prompt response. Good advice. Seems it must be hard to move properties at 505 St Kilda Road even though the building is beautiful. The one we were looking at had been on the market 200 days and reduced in price about 50,000. Why do they have trouble selling in this building? The building appears to have good credentials?

Thanks also for the heads up on Elm. The pool is ornamental and lends itself to the club-med crowd like Society I expect. The location seems good however being a stones throw from the city. When I was back there recently, I noticed signs of heavy wear and tear which I now associate with high rental demographic given my experience in Sydney. We've seen a couple of nice apartments there though.

Going back on topic to South Yarra though, are there any buildings there you'd recommend we check out. I've also looked in 700 and 800 Chapel Sts. They seemed ok, but appear to have a heavy rental demographic. Clara seems like the best of the bunch so far.
 
Hi Melbournian

Thanks for the prompt response. Good advice. Seems it must be hard to move properties at 505 St Kilda Road even though the building is beautiful. The one we were looking at had been on the market 200 days and reduced in price about 50,000. Why do they have trouble selling in this building? The building appears to have good credentials?

Thanks also for the heads up on Elm. The pool is ornamental and lends itself to the club-med crowd like Society I expect. The location seems good however being a stones throw from the city. When I was back there recently, I noticed signs of heavy wear and tear which I now associate with high rental demographic given my experience in Sydney. We've seen a couple of nice apartments there though.

Going back on topic to South Yarra though, are there any buildings there you'd recommend we check out. I've also looked in 700 and 800 Chapel Sts. They seemed ok, but appear to have a heavy rental demographic. Clara seems like the best of the bunch so far.

505 st kilda rd has a nice building but the facilities not not that great for what you are paying for. How many people can afford or are willing to pay just below a million and above a million for an apartment like that? you could buy 2 houses in glen waverley for some of the prices they're asking

as for clara st - depending on the price you are paying it would determine whether it is a worthwhile investment is something you need to consider. Having a rental demographic is not something bad - end of the day it is the yield on the investment and the capital growth. Wear and tear is something that should have been looked after by the owners corporation and the building manager. As for personal lifestyle factors that is all subjective on what you are looking for.

a major factor in apartment living i feel is size - if you have high end pool but a pigeon hole apartment - what does that matter? as 90% of the time you spend in the apartment building would be in the apartment itself. Also - you can renovate the space you have if you want a higher end space (showers, bathroom, kitchen etc) you have but you can't extend the space if your place is small.

South yarra - you better off going for older places off caroline st and toorak rd. there are no massive growth for those newer places you are going. If you can
 
Hi Melbournian

Thanks for the prompt response. Good advice. Seems it must be hard to move properties at 505 St Kilda Road even though the building is beautiful. The one we were looking at had been on the market 200 days and reduced in price about 50,000. Why do they have trouble selling in this building? The building appears to have good credentials?

Thanks also for the heads up on Elm. The pool is ornamental and lends itself to the club-med crowd like Society I expect. The location seems good however being a stones throw from the city. When I was back there recently, I noticed signs of heavy wear and tear which I now associate with high rental demographic given my experience in Sydney. We've seen a couple of nice apartments there though.

Going back on topic to South Yarra though, are there any buildings there you'd recommend we check out. I've also looked in 700 and 800 Chapel Sts. They seemed ok, but appear to have a heavy rental demographic. Clara seems like the best of the bunch so far.

What is your budget?
 
Back
Top