Kensington, VIC 3031

Kensington is the inner-north’s best-kept secret: closer to the city than Footscray, more peaceful than North Melbourne, greener than Richmond, and substantially cheaper than Fitzroy. The Maribyrnong river is right at your fingertips, South Kensington station takes you direct to Southern Cross station in, believe it or not, approximately just five minutes, walkable to Footscray, Flemington, Newmarket and North Melbourne, you have Melbourne's best parks, restaurants, bars and cafes all in the palm of your hand, at a fraction of the cost of other inner suburbs. With Arden Precinct and the Metro Tunnel coming, Kensington is positioned to be the king of Melbourne’s north-west — the suburb where value, lifestyle, and unbelievable proximity to the city converge. Ridiculously undervalued currently but not likely to be for much longer.

Easily the best suburb I’ve ever seen or lived in! Especially if you love good urban green space design. Close proximity to the maribyrnong river trails, local wetland. There’s little parks and gardens around every corner, and with old buildings and colourful houses, the suburb just feels village like and vibrant. There’s nothing like it this close to Melbourne CBD.

Just a dull, lifeless, inner-city, Greens-loving, snobby suburb.

Kensington has some incredibly beautiful buildings, a lot of older buildings too! Great cafe options and shopping opportunities. This is a great suburb to live in, not far from Flemington. Neighbourhood is friendly and quite safe in my opinion.
Steve Mac - House Land Co

A lovely community close to the CBD, with lots of public transport options. The suburb is growing quickly.

A gem, with a great mix of young families and professionals. So close to the city and the suburb is well serviced with schools, transport and shopping nearby.

We have been living in Kensington for over 4 years and had 2kids while living here. It is just a great area for kids with a lot of playgrounds, a wonderful community with lots of families. Nice walk along with the stalls that lead along the river. Lot's of lovely restaurants and coffee shop to go out. 10min train ride from Parliament station, i think around 20min from Victoria market via tram. Moonee ponds is great for shopping. Just a wonderful area.

When buyers/renters reference Kensington as prospective suburb in which to live I often think they are sub consciously seeing Kensington/Flemington as the same – the two share the same 3031 postcode. The two suburbs I think should be viewed separately - with Flemington to the north of Racecourse Rd - the poorer cousin- to Kensington to the south of Racecourse Rd. As evidenced by Kensington’s higher median house price.

PLUS
“Village” like feel
Good range of cafes & restaurants – Laksa King in adjoining Flemington is one of my favourite Asian food spots in Melbourne & The Premises in Bellair street my favourite Kensington café.
Very good public transport with three train stations accessible depending on what area of the suburb you live in
Easy access to Citylink
Good for cyclists re access to the river bike paths
Some leafy streets with relatively consistent historical (predominantly Victorian) architecture
Relatively affordable for the inner city e.g. a double fronted Victorian here may be bought for circa the same amount as single fronted Victorian inner bayside e.g. Albert Park or inner south east e.g. South Yarra
Access to the Maribyrnong River & various parks inc. Royal Park
Easy access to the CBD
The CBD's drift west - towards Docklands - favours Kensington

MINUS
The elephant in the room is the large volume of Housing Commission in the locality
Crime, vagrancy, drug users in the locality are noted by some residents as being a downside of the suburb
Nearest large supermarket is in North Melbourne
New multi-unit housing stock both townhoses & apartment blocks - a lot of which is of dubious architectural merit & poor build quality is impacting the “charm” of the suburb. However this is consistent with what is happening across Melbourne, not just in Kensington

Scott Hall – Buyers Advocate – 0457 513 124

The past six years in Kensington have been great.

Three train stations and only two stations away from the City Loop, or 15 minutes in the car to get to the city makes for convenience.

The local shopping strip is great, with good take away options (the old-school fish and chips are delicious), brunch / coffee (The Premises), and nice homewares stores (Dwell, Tempted). Newmarket and North Melbourne for Woolworths are close, and Highpoint / CBD shops are also easy to access.

The stock route trail makes for a lovely walk, with pretty small parks dotted along the route to the Maribyrnong River.

This area has always felt safe and homely, and it is nice to be close to the city and to feel as though you’ve ‘escaped’ it as soon as you get home. Great community feel.