Heatherton, VIC 3202

Heatherton is a beautiful area with plenty of parklands and a great community spirit. The houses are super modern, and we are close to everything including Moorabbin DFO, Southland, and just 10 minutes away from Southland train station. Because of our location we have the best access to Melbourne's bayside without all the noise and traffic. This is a beautiful estate. The streets look perfect and the council looks after all the parklands. It's one of the best suburbs I've lived in my whole life. It may not have the reputation of a prestigious suburb like a Bentleigh or a Sandringham however you get what you pay for and the current prices in Heatherton are an absolute steal! This is literally Melbournes best kept secret.

Heatherton is seriously an awesome area. I grew up in the inner city and have moved to Heatherton with my family. It's a great estate with beautiful houses and a lot of parkland. It's very green, the neighbours are mostly families, young professionals and retirees, and everyone is friendly to one another. It's comparable to an affluent estate in Beverly Hills California.

It's an area located in between Moorabbin, Cheltenham and Bentleigh East.

Hurry and buy before housing prices get BLOWN out the roof.

I've got no idea what all the negative reviewers are talking about. Try searching realestate.com.au and see how many properties come up for sale in the The Heath - hardly any. That's because it's a fantastic place to live. To address specific concerns raised by others "reviewers" in here:

@robtjwilliams - wow, so you stayed with friends, you never lived here - so, then that qualifies you as an expert does it........ holy cow man, and I use the word cow for lack of a better word that more describes my feelings. Also, most of your 5 other reviews have received quite stinging feedback from other people in those suburbs. As to the ghosts that roam the streets - lol...... yeah, we see them all the time mate, along with other imaginary zombies...... can't believe some of these comments. I also tried googling 'heatherton mental asylum' and came up with nothing, so maybe you can post some references, instead of just 'quoting locals'. I'm a local, come and ask me whether I've seen screaming ghosts.... also, couldn't agree with your headline more, absolutely do your research. Check houses in mentone, cheltenham, and even bentleigh east, you'll see what you get here, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and garage spots, you'll see heatherton ain't so bad after all...

In regards to the various build issues comments, we haven't seen a single crack - nothing that would suggest inferior build quality. I won't say there's no issues, other people may have had them, but any issues that come up are very minor, and I've experienced all of them before in all my other houses where we've build (we've lived in 3 new houses the last 3 times we've bought). We did a building inspection before we bought, so should everyone, for any house...! Common sense.

To all the recent 'strange' reviews, I don't see what's wrong with it personally - at least they all live in the estate, or have at some point. Maybe a real estate agent did ask their clients who were selling at the time to post their experiences... who knows? This place has great outside areas, parks and a real community spirit. I wonder how the people you stayed with would feel about your review, robtj? Looking at all your other negative reviews, I'd say they wouldn't be happy at all.

We get real estate agents knocking on our doors every other week handing out phamplets and trying to get general interest about whether we'd consider selling, there are that few properties for sale. We know all our neighbours, both on our streets, and other streets.

As for prices falling quickly, just look at the history of sales....... lol.... can't believe some of these comments. We've had some pretty major sales in the area recently, some for $700K plus. Considering these houses were around the $500K mark when they went on sale - I don't think we're doing too badly there.

Regarding the airplane noise - I have 3 kids, we play outside all the time. I barely notice the planes when I'm outside, let alone the inside. From some of these reviews you'd think they went over all the time. They never disturb me, the houses were insulated for noise anyway. Inside the house, I've never noticed a single plane - that's how good the insulation is.

Regarding heating, again, I've spoken to other people, friends in other houses, ie. Bentleigh, etc.. and every house has a spot where the sun comes in, or is cold in winter. We have the back room like that, but again, it ain't a problem. Some of the comments here, the way they go on.....! I can tell you it's no sauna in summer. The air con struggles on 35+ degree days, but I haven't been in any house that does cope....

In summary, The Heath is a great place to live, the community spirit is there, and the open plan is great. We even have a Nando's at the front of the estate............! I won't say it's perfect, but nowhere I've lived is perfect. It's the best of where I've lived, that's for sure.

We stayed with friends in this estate for a while. The house was well laid out and has lots of storage which is good. We did also have problems finding a place to park our car.

I even considered buying in the Heath for a moment in time. Was stunned by the superficial beauty of the estate. However was put off quickly by a large number of factors mostly covered by previous feedback. Small jigsaw blocks, poor quality build, lack of parking, lots of noise from neighbours and the airport, etc..etc.. It is safe to assume that prices will fall dramatically in the future as the properties start to show some age.

But I also found another factor not covered by other comments - I spoke to a few locals and they told me that at the end of Ball Road was the Brighton Municipal Tip (i.e. regular garbage). It was covered recently, but is still highly toxic (releasing fumes and toxins to groundwater, etc.). You can still see the signs for it at the end of the street (the land now occupied by horses). It was going to be converted to playing fields for a school, but considered too toxic.

After doing further research, I found the site next to it (the network of quarries off Heatherton Road), is scheduled to be the next tip site (owned by Transfield now it seems). It has already conducted the EPA testing/monitoring for the site to go ahead as regular municipal landfill (it was planned and approved back in the 90's). I would not want to live anywhere near the smell/seagulls associated with tip sites.

Another interesting fact - The Heath estate was built on the site of the former Heatherton Mental Asylum. There were a significant number of deaths/suicides on site. So look out for the ghosts of tortured souls wandering the streets at night :)... Something to tell the kids at Halloween :-P

There seems to be a lot of strange recent positive feedback in a short period of time. Looks like it was put there by real estate agents or sellers? Suggest that you read all the comments and make your own decision.

In response to the negative feedback left by some people, please consider:

Jgibson3202:
You seem bitter and intent on spoiling it for residents! I appreciate that estate living is not for everyone and there is a fair amount of scepticism in regards to living here but…

The prohibition on the use of blinds was only a temporary thing to allow Mirvac (the builder) control on the appearance of the estate until all the houses were sold - no longer in place and probably not enforceable at the time anyhow.

You may have been duped by your builder. I am aligned to the building trade myself and it sounds to me like the wall footing must have rolled to cause a wall collapse like that. It would take a fair amount of subsidence / excavation to allow a wall to collapse. As part of Mirvac’s QA procedures all footings and frames are inspected at appropriate stages of the build. These houses were, on the whole, well built by a quality volume builder and the style of build (brick facade and blue board render) is no different from the majority of modern houses. A building inspection should always be undertaken by a competent person prior to buying!

You fear that the values will fall dramatically – you seem intent (now that you have sold) on facilitating this… so you can justify your decision?

Sammyj:
A less bitter and more rounded account of your experience of living here. However I expect most of the issues would be encountered in houses of neighbouring suburbs. All houses, particularly modern double storey houses, creak and move a bit and don't forget we have been through a broken drought. ADSL internet is available in estate. Access to ADSL 2 may have been limited originally and allocation exhausted and apparently will be upgraded.


Our experience of the Heath (8yrs this month) has been great.

No issues with the house, barely notice the planes at all though it may be that some air space above the estate is busier than others in this regard, very very peaceful in the evening and throughout the night, great neighbours, well located, and safe for the kids. Although this style of living may be higher density than that of housing located on other traditional blocks, the now common practice of sub-division and the building of newer double storey houses on these traditional blocks is changing this i.e., you never know what may pop up next door. At least, with houses on the Heath, the design of the neighbour’s houses are set which assures the privacy of your back garden is maximised through lack of abutting / overlooking windows.

However, pick your block carefully as some better located / orientated and bigger than others. To finish …you cannot get a better house / neighbourhood for the money anywhere else in this area of Melbourne.

I've lived here since 2001 and I'm onto my 3rd house in the Heath! Firstly I lived in stage 1 with my family in the Portsea design. As teenagers we all loved that our rooms were huge and we had our own space from our parents. In 2006 my then boyfriend and I bought a Terrace house off the plan in the final stage as our first home. Compared to what we could get for the same price in Cheltenham, Mentone, East Bentleigh or Moorabbin we couldn't believe what value we got for our money. All of our friends were buying their first houses in these suburbs and they were tiny and needed totally renovating. Here we were with this beautifully designed, sleek, modern home in a street where all of the houses looked just as fantastic. When we got married and wanted to start a family almost 3 years ago, we sold our terrace and started looking around the area again. For our money we looked at houses back in the same suburbs as last time and all we could afford was a pushover or something that needed totally renovating. Having come from two previously brand new houses in the Heath you can imagine that I was miserable at the thought!! I cried leaving one open for inspection in Bentleigh East thinking, there is NO WAY I'm living in this dump and bringing babies home to it! When we found our beautiful 4 bedroom home overlooking the park with its beautiful garden and perfect floor plan it didn't take long for us to realise that the Heath was where we wanted to be and to raise our own children. We now have an 18 month old daughter and another baby on the way and along with our 7 year old Maltese Poodle we absolutely love living here. There's hardly any traffic, so many parks with play equipment, walking tracks, beautiful open spaces and generally a feeling of community. We have made life long friends with neighbours and love to watch our kids grow up together. We are close to Southland, DFO and less than 10 minutes to either Mentone or Mordialloc where we love to head to on the weekend for brunch or late lunch. The Monash Fwy is also close by and that also means Chadstone Shopping centre isn't far either! For what we have paid for our home I still can't quite believe how good the location is. For families considering moving to the Heath I would say don't question it! Having a beautiful, low maintenance home in a safe and quiet suburb that is close to everything is a no brainer. I can’t rate this suburb highly enough!

I bought investment house in the Heath Estate 7 years ago and it has never been vacant for 2 weeks. The rental return is fantastic, people seeking rental properties here are descent and professionals.

Bought 8 years ago,still love it.
Great size houses for the price,you will not find a 4-5 bedroom house for these prices in mentone all cheltenham.
Next to beach,schools and shops.
Very quiet.
No Problems.

I did not know much about Heatheton until I moved into the Heath estate about 4 years ago - what a pleasant surprise. A quiet friendly family area. Easy access to schools, Southland and beach but very little internal traffic with kids frequently playing in the street. I enjoy taking the dog for a walk with all the parks and quality houses. I think the houses are really good value compared to adjacent areas however I expect demand will increase with the development on Kingston Rd and others discover the area.