The Luxury of Choice
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As the definition of luxury evolves globally, Victoria offers something increasingly valuable: the freedom to choose how and where you live.
Luxury is changing:
Across the world’s leading residential markets, the conversation is moving beyond scale and status alone. Privacy, wellbeing, quality of design, connection to landscape and, perhaps most importantly, the freedom to live well are increasingly shaping the homes and locations sought by discerning buyers.
It reflects a broader shift in the way people are choosing to live. A principal residence no longer needs to represent a single lifestyle, nor does one address necessarily need to fulfil every purpose.
For some, that means maintaining a Melbourne base while spending more time on the Mornington Peninsula or in the country. For others, it is downsizing to a beautifully appointed apartment and exchanging the responsibilities of a larger home for months spent interstate or overseas.
In Victoria, that freedom of choice takes on a particularly compelling form.
Within easy reach of Melbourne are four distinctly different ways of living: the cultural energy and established elegance of the city, the ease of Bayside, the retreat of the Peninsula, and the space and privacy of the country.
CITY
In Toorak, luxury is grounded in proximity.
Leafy streets and significant architecture sit within reach of Melbourne’s leading restaurants, galleries, schools and cultural institutions. Here, the appeal is not simply a prestigious postcode, but the ability to combine privacy at home with immediate access to the city.
12 Hill Street, Toorak offers one expression of this distinctly Melbourne way of living. Conceived by Cera Stribley, with interiors by SJB and landscaping by Jack Merlo, the residence combines significant architecture with panoramic views towards the Melbourne skyline.
Yet city living can offer freedom at a very different scale.
A well considered apartment can become a sophisticated Melbourne base, one that can simply be locked and left for three months spent up north, a summer in Tuscany or time exploring elsewhere in the world.
The luxury is no longer necessarily having more. It can be having greater freedom over how you spend your time.
COAST
In Brighton, the pace changes.
The bay becomes part of everyday life, architecture opens towards gardens and outdoor spaces, and the distinction between home and retreat begins to disappear.
It mirrors a wider international movement towards homes that place wellbeing, recreation and connection to the outdoors at their centre; qualities increasingly associated with contemporary luxury living.
At 23 Wolseley Grove, Brighton, considered architecture and generous indoor-outdoor living capture that sense of ease.
Bayside offers a particularly compelling balance: close enough to remain connected to Melbourne, yet removed enough to create a distinctly different rhythm of life.
For many, that is precisely its appeal.
PENINSULA
Further south, the Mornington Peninsula offers another interpretation entirely.
Here, beaches, vineyards, celebrated dining, golf courses and expansive landscapes create an environment that can be either an escape from Melbourne or somewhere to call home.
Increasingly, the Peninsula need not be reserved for weekends. Greater flexibility around where and how people work has created the opportunity to spend considerably more time here, or to shift the principal place of residence to the Peninsula while retaining a smaller Melbourne base.
255 Main Creek Road, Main Ridge, ‘Pine Ridge Estate’ captures this possibility. Set across approximately 10 acres among some of the Peninsula’s celebrated wine country, the property combines a boutique vineyard, established gardens and a relaxed country residence with proximity to cellar doors, restaurants, golf courses and beaches.
It is a property equally suited to becoming a permanent retreat or a place to escape to for the weekend.
For those considering a change in principal place of residence, there may also be financial or tax considerations worth exploring with an appropriate financial or tax adviser.
Here, the luxury lies in having the best of both worlds: maintaining a connection to Melbourne while allowing life outside the city to take greater priority.
COUNTRY
Then there is the luxury of space.
Across international prime markets, privacy and access to nature are becoming increasingly prized as buyers reconsider what they want their homes to provide over the long term.
In the Macedon Ranges, that translates into expansive landscapes, established communities and the opportunity to live at a different rhythm without severing the connection to Melbourne.
59 Duggan Road, Gisborne represents this third perspective: country living defined by space, landscape and privacy.
THE LUXURY OF CHOICE
Perhaps this is what makes Melbourne particularly compelling.
Luxury need not be defined by one location or one way of living. It can be dinner in the city, a morning beside the bay or the quiet of a country landscape.
City. Bayside. Peninsula. Country. Distincty different ways of living, connected by one increasingly valued luxury: the freedom to choose. between them.