Buyer's Guide to this Bellevue Hill Neighbourhood
James Dunn is born and bred Eastern Suburbs, growing up in Bellevue Hill on Suttie Road and has been servicing the area since 2004.
Diverse mix of housing and people
Around the Suttie Road, Warren Road end it’s a bit more suburban than other parts of Bellevue Hill, mostly bigger houses and it’s more so young families who are living there, when you get up closer to Bellevue Road in this pocket you'll find more apartments, younger couples, singles and downsizers.
The beauty about Bellevue Hill overall is you’ve still got your smaller apartments and you’ve got your houses, it’s such a mix of different people that are living here, the school I went to, Cranbrook, is a very diverse school, like the Eastern Suburbs in general.
It's just really interesting to have such a small area with everyone in such close proximity and the diversity of everyone all seems to mix in together.
Lifestyle factors
I loved growing up near this area because it's close to Cooper Park, which has got tennis courts, I’m also a very keen surfer and it’s an easy drive down to Bronte or Tamarama to surf but then you’re not there in the thick of things, you can kind of get away from it.
You've got Bellevue Road here, where there’s been a lot of great cafes which have just opened up, and great little restaurants, so it’s become such a desirable area to live.
It’s also close to Double Bay which is booming at the moment with new cafes and restaurants the beauty of living here is that access to the city and the beaches is so easy.
Zoning changes are driving development
On certain streets here you can subdivide the land, Carlotta Road has now got the R3 zoning, and you’re starting to see quite a lot of neighbours coming together and selling in one line, to either put in blocks of apartments or what have you.
This has just happened recently on Bellevue Road, a sale off market, the neighbours are looking to join the two properties together and put on six apartments, on Carlotta Road which is now zoned as Double Bay you can see the exact same thing happening, people are subdividing and putting in duplexes, townhouses, and apartments.
On the other streets nearby like Suttie Road, Kulgoa or Victoria, the zoning there is more the fact that they are just doing additions to the house, knocking the house down, building a new house, or just renovating what's currently there or adding a new level if it’s a single little bungalow.
High demand for one bedders
Interestingly now a lot of one bedrooms seem to be in higher demand and the prices for them are also really high, what I’ve noticed is a lot of people don’t seem to be getting married until their thirties now, and by the time you’re mid, late twenties you don’t really want to living with three other people, so the one bedroom rental demand is very strong and that’s the same on the sales side now too.
Constant renovations going on
If you drive up the streets around here you'll find that on every second street there’s about three or four houses renovating at any one time and that seems to be the trend in a lot of areas, but Bellevue Hill, Double Bay and Rose Bay and Woollahra specifically.
It’s phenomenal the amount of work people are doing.
Also some people have been in some of the houses for forty years, then they sell it and it's still an old style bungalow, a young family comes in, they want to put their own touches on things, it’s all about keeping things fresh and new.