Property valuations in Southbank

Southbank is high-density apartment territory, where two units in the same tower can differ substantially on floor level, orientation and outlook. Assessment rests on building quality and management, aspect, the size and usability of any balcony, car parking and storage, and the current owners corporation fee structure and reserves.

Inner Melbourne is the hardest part of the city to value from a spreadsheet. Two Victorian terraces on the same street can differ by hundreds of thousands on frontage, orientation, rear access and whether the rear extension was done well. Add heritage overlays, small and irregular lots, and an apartment market that ranges from converted warehouses to new towers, and automated estimates lose their footing quickly.

In Southbank the building matters more than the suburb. Two apartments of identical size in adjacent towers can differ substantially on outlook, management quality and fee structure, so comparable evidence is drawn from the building itself wherever the sales support it.

What we weigh here

• Heritage overlays and what they permit at the rear of a period home
• Frontage, lot shape and rear laneway access, which vary enormously street to street
• Owner-occupier versus investment-grade apartment stock, which behave as separate markets
• The quality and compliance of extensions, common in period housing here

Automated online estimates can't assess any of these. That's the gap a valuation fills.