RAMPANT demand is draining the supply of available housing in affordable Coolaroo, South Morang and Sunshine North, creating conditions experts say are driving price growth.

The postcodes join Elsternwick and Heidelberg as property website LocationScore’s top suburbs where demand for certain property types has “skyrocketed above supply” in the past year.

Director of research Jeremy Sheppard said the data showed available house stock in Coolaroo, Elsternwick and Heidelberg couldn’t keep up with demand last year, while units were the object of desire in South Morang and Sunshine North.

Mr Sheppard said the site examined eight indicators for demand based on ABS, CoreLogic and realestate.com.au data to determine the star suburbs.

These included average days on market, vendor discounting, auction clearance rates, rental vacancy rates and interest on property listing websites.

Rocketing demand was “an excellent indication of a suburb’s potential for price growth” — making it worthy of being on budding investors’ radars, he said.

Advantage Property Consulting director Frank Valentic said the sought-after markets had all benefited from the “ripple effect” pushing buyers further from Melbourne’s CBD.

Mr Valentic expected Coolaroo, South Morang and Sunshine North’s fortunes to continue to rise, but warned prospective buyers to be cautious of Elsternwick and Heidelberg.

“They’ve had a really good run so they might be at their peak, or close to it,” the buyer’s advocate said.

He said The Block had put Elsternwick on the map nationally, but it had been on the rise before the Channel 9 show chose it as the site for last year’s season.

CoreLogic figures show the southeastern suburb’s median house price jumped 21 per cent to $1.945 million last year. But it remained more affordable than neighbouring Brighton, where the median house price had risen to $2.8 million.

Heidelberg’s median enjoyed 9.5 per cent annual and 64 per cent five-yearly gains to $1.196 million and Coolaroo’s, 19 per cent and 42 per cent respectively to $399,500.

Buyers priced out of Clifton Hill, Alphington and Ivanhoe, and Glenroy, Coburg and Fawkner were choosing these areas, Mr Valentic said.

In South Morang, Ray White Bundoora agent Nick Petrovski said a “very limited supply” of units was being eagerly snapped up by buyers seeking the suburb’s affordability and improving infrastructure.

“There are more houses than units, and units appeal to three sectors — downsizers, investors and first-home buyers,” he said.

Mr Petrovski said dozens had inspected a two-bedroom unit at 48 Lamour Ave within a week of it hitting the market with a $365,000-$400,000 price guide and February 17 auction date.

Seller Lauren Elovaris, 34, bought the home brand new in 2012 because she “loved the area” for its walking paths, train station, expanding Westfield shopping centre and affordability.

SOURCE: www.realestate.com.au