IT’S long-been considered the ugly cousin to Brisbane’s sought after seaside locales, but hidden inside this tiny suburb are streets lined with real estate gold.
Deagon, some 16km north of the CBD, is only 2.7sq km and home to just 3675 residents.
It’s among the smallest of Brisbane’s suburbs and sits behind the more desirable areas of Sandgate and Shorncliffe, which both offer a lifestyle overlooking Moreton Bay.
When compared to its two water-side neighbours, Deagon is relatively cheaper to buy into, except for two streets – Station St and Central Ave – which contain $1 million-plus homes.
The higher pricetag is because sections of each street back on to Cabbage Tree Creek which has deep water access for boats.
Residents on those streets can moor their boats off their backyards.
Coronis Real Estate agent Jarrod Tyler said homes backing on to Cabbage Tree Creek rarely come on the market.
“A few of those are tipping into the $900,000 or over the one million dollar range,” Mr Tyler told The Courier-Mail.
“We had one sell last year and one earlier this year for $1 million-plus and it’s because they get deep water access.
“You’ve probably got about 100 homes which back on to the creek and are really tightly held and are hard to get. Central Avenue is the pick of the streets.”
The hot properties sales have partially helped lift the median house price about 20 per cent to $434,000 over the past five years.
It’s the perfect entry point for young home buyers looking for a three-bedroom weatherboard house for well under half a million dollars.
Mr Tyler said about 50 per cent of the households in Deagon have at least one child and the influx of new and young families has been noticed by local business owner Cathy Walk.
Ms Walk runs the family owned Deagon Bulk Meats, which is situated on the corner of Adams and Barclay St.
The family took over the business almost a decade ago, although a butcher has been at that spot for more than a century and was the 18th registered butcher’s shop in Queensland.
Ms Walk said during her time in Deagon the clientele has become notably younger and time poor.
“When we first came here it was more the older folk who had been here 50 or 60 years that were our customers and now a lot of our customers have kids,” she said.
“The customers are more into easier preparation meals because of busier lifestyles these days.”
Across the road from the butcher’s is Mythos Corner Store which until November was a run-down corner convenience shop.
Owner Stuss Read, who previously owned a Greek restaurant in Nundah, said it took him two years to find the perfect location for a new enterprise.
He said the store originally opened in 1938 and his first thoughts were to “gut the place” and turn it into a coffee shop but feedback from the locals changed his mind.
“Deagon is such a beautiful place, it’s like a little community,” he said.
“Everyone asked us to keep the convenience store, but you can’t survive on that alone, so we diversified and brought in Greek coffees and Greek sweets and that’s our point of difference.”
A few hundred metres from Mr Read’s coffee shop is Deagon Racecourse on Board St which is flanked by the Gateway Motorway and Racecourse Rd.
It was established as a private training track in the early 1900s by then-racing kingpin John Wren before being bought by the Brisbane Amateur Turf club in 1948.
It changed hands again in 1999 when the Queensland State Government bought it for $5 million through the racing development fund and in 2005 it became the administrative home of Racing Queensland.
Besides about 80 employees working at Deagon’s RQ’s headquarters’, the facilities include an apprentice jockey school for theory and practical lessons and a training track.
“There’s about 135 horses in work at Deagon and there about 10 trainers domiciled on the track,” said RQ racing manager Ross Gove.
“As a rule of thumb… anywhere between 150 to 170 people play an active role in either training or helping train (the horses at Deagon).”
The apprentice jockey school is effectively one of only two schools in Deagon. The other is Sandgate District State High School which is tucked away behind Deagon Market Square on Sandgate Rd.
The lack of schools in Deagon has not deterred young families moving into the suburb, says Mr Tyler.
“The 4017 postcode, which Deagon, Brighton, Sandgate, Shorncliffe and Bracken Ridge, is huge for schools,” he said.
“Potentially half of Deagon is made up of children and you have got your pick of schools even though they are not in Deagon.
There’s Nashville State School (Brighton), Sacred Heart (Sandgate), St Kieran’s Primary (Brighton) and St Joseph’s Primary (Bracken Ridge) and they’re just a few.”
He said the suburb was on the way up and a perfect place for boaties and new homeowners.
“Deagon was like the ugly cousin and now there has been separating and contemporary new builds and houses selling well over a million bucks, “Mr Tyler said.
“In the six years I’ve been servicing the suburb, it’s become a more desirable suburb and it’s affordable.”
Originally Published: http://www.couriermail.com.au