Luxury Apartments - a reward for success

High life: Janeta Grant's new outlook is a far cry from the farm at Swan Hill.

Sweeping vistas of the CBD and Port Phillip Bay are fast becoming the yardstick of success as luxury apartments attract a broad cross-section of wealthy Melbourne buyers and people from some of the least well-off suburbs.

It sounds like the perfect marketing pitch, but Australand's national manager of apartments, Robert Pradolin, said a survey of buyers in Southbank's Freshwater Place revealed more than half considered their purchase a reward for personal achievement. While the bulk of buyers were aged 40 to 60, many did not conform to the image of a well-heeled professional looking to downsize from a sprawling eastern suburbs home.

Mr Pradolin said many buyers attracted to the Manhattan-style lifestyle were people who ran successful small businesses, and some were from working-class suburbs.

The survey revealed Freshwater Place buyers had come from 64 suburbs across Melbourne. It was a trend repeated in the neighbouring Eureka Tower and at Victoria Harbour's Dock 5.

A Eureka Tower spokeswoman said the development had buyers from 144 suburbs, including less affluent suburbs such as Keilor, Altona, Bundoora, Reservoir, Glenroy, Werribee, Deer Park, Ardeer and Sunshine. It was a similar story at Dock 5. Its Melbourne investors were spread across 96 of the city's suburbs.

People from regional areas have also been caught in the rush. Freshwater Place resident Janeta Grant and her husband, Jim, spent three years looking for a city apartment before deciding to buy on the 21st floor. After living there three weeks, Ms Grant is convinced they made the right decision.

They sold their cattle property near Swan Hill and moved to town while they waited for their $1.25 million, three-bedroom apartment to be built. Mr Grant, who also owns KFC franchises, said he chose high-rise living because he wanted something different. "We've done the sea change in reverse. There's nothing much happening (in the country) if you don't play golf or go fishing," he said. "I have always worked seven days a week and don't have those interests. And now I can walk to the footy or the cricket, or anywhere I want to go. "My wife loves going shopping, and just looking out the window you can see things you couldn't see in Swan Hill."

Eureka Tower spokeswoman Lisa Chapman said 91 per cent of buyers were lured by the building's location. "It's two minutes from the freeway and 18 minutes to the airport; they can shut the door and go away for three months," she said.

All towers reported about 80 per cent of purchasers were couples. There were just 10 families in the Eureka Tower and a few in Freshwater Place.