_Next neighbourhoods - St Kilda Road
Each year our property experts demonstrate the depth of their local knowledge by hand-picking those districts and neighbourhoods that they believe are the “ones to watch”. This year we feature a range in The Wealth Report from Wynyard Quarter in Auckland to The West Coast of Barbados, from Delray Beach in Florida to St Jean District in the Cote d'Azur, France. Today, we are going to focus on St Kilda Road in Melbourne.
St Kilda Road is often referred to as Melbourne’s ‘great boulevard’. To give that statement some context, during Melbourne’s Gold Rush in the late 1800’s, the city was one of the richest in the world. Massive civic works were undertaken to create a London style city with a proliferation of stunning Victorian architecture and expansive parks and gardens. It also saw the beginning of what is now the world’s longest tram network, and the establishment of many wide, tree lined carriageways.
Image: Fawkner Park, Melbourne
St Kilda Road was the largest of this type, and as the main southern thoroughfare out of the CBD, it snakes along some of Melbourne major gardens including the Royal Botanic, Fawkner Park and Albert Park, home of the Australian Grand Prix. It is also home to Melbourne’s arts precinct, with our main art gallery and concert hall located on the strip.
It is for this reason that Melburnians proudly compare St Kilda Road with London’s Park Lane or Paris’ Champs-Elysees.
Now to talk of the resurgence of the strip. From the 1950’s to the 1990's, St Kilda Road’s close proximity to the city and strong public transport links saw many of its historic mansions torn down, to make way for an expanse of commercial office development. This development created one of Australia’s largest commercial office markets, however it also created a strip which, outside of 9-5 Monday to Friday, was relatively devoid of activity.
Over the past 20 years however, there has been a considerable shift towards high quality, high rise residential. Many of the commercial office towers, now aged into irrelevance, are being torn down to make way for prime residential development. This is due to the overwhelming demand from cashed up baby boomers looking to move from the suburbs and embrace a more cosmopolitan lifestyle.
Image: Trams on St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Key amenity of value to these and other residents of the strip include access to the parks mentioned above, but also a litany of restaurants, café’s and bars. The tram which runs every few minutes along the strip will take residents to the heart of the CBD in minutes. It also has excellent road accessibility, with immediate entrance points to Melbourne’s freeway network giving residents easy driving to anywhere in the city, or to their country or coastal holiday homes.
Neighbouring the strip is also some of Melbourne’s most trendy inner city suburbs, including but not limited to South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor and St Kilda, and their thriving retail scenes and diverse cultures.
Proudly positioned within Melbourne's illustrious Domain Precinct, close to St Kilda Road, is The Muse, which will offer its residents immediate access to some of Melbourne's most quintessential locations. Directly bordering the iconic Fawkner Park, the building is also only minutes from natural beauty of Albert Park Lake and The Royal Botanic Gardens. Take a short stroll from your front door to premium restaurants and cafés, with both Domain Road Shopping within 500m and Toorak Road South Yarra within 900m.
Artist's impression: The Muse, Melbourne
For more information about St Kilda Road and The Muse please contact our Head of Project Marketing in Victoria, Daniel Cashen.