Glen Waverley Vic

Researching·Find a BuilderCost Tracker
Eastern Melbourne · Victoria

What's Glen Waverley made of?

Mostly 1960s cream brick veneer on 650-800m² blocks, sitting on reactive clay, with high pressure to knock down and rebuild. City of Monash.

Who built Glen Waverley
1960s cream brick veneer 35%Infill townhouses and rebuilds 35%1970s brown brick 25%1980s-90s brick veneer 5%

The eras, street by street

1960s cream brick veneer

35%
1960s

Triple-fronted cream or clinker brick veneer, tiled roof, timber floors on stumps, single carport, a lemon tree out the back.

Infill townhouses and rebuilds

35%
2000s-2020s

Dual occupancies and townhouse rows replacing 1950s-60s veneers under ResCode, plus single-block knockdown rebuilds.

1970s brown brick

25%
1970s

Brown or clinker brick veneer, aluminium windows, ducted gas heating, family room, double carport. Project homes in the new estates of the day.

1980s-90s brick veneer

5%
1980s-1990s

Brick veneer with tiled roof, ensuite, rumpus, double garage by the 90s, ducted heating. Rendered Federation-revival gables late in the period.

Typical block
650-800m²
Typical frontage
15-18m
Rebuild pressure
High

Under the floor

Soil

Reactive clay

Moderately to highly reactive clay (Class M to H). Seasonal movement causes hairline cracking in brickwork and render. Modern slabs are engineered for it; older strip footings were not. Consistent moisture around the house is the whole game.

In the walls

  • •Asbestos in eaves, bathroom, laundry and fence
  • •Galvanised pipes and low water pressure
  • •Empty wall cavities (no insulation)
  • •Original switchboard with ceramic fuses
  • •Stumps due (VIC) or slab-edge dampness (SA)
  • •Party walls and shared driveways on community or strata titles
  • •Small setbacks mean little garden and less solar access
  • •Quality varies enormously between developer-builders
What each of these costs to fix

How the streets are changing

Melbourne's knockdown capital. The cream brick veneers are going two-for-one, and single rebuilds run to 400m² of house.

The thing locals know

The school zone drives the whole market. A block inside the GWSC boundary is worth more as land than the house on it ever was.

Time machine

What's changed in Glen Waverley since Nan bought

House prices in years of wages, decade by decade, what was standing when, and what her block does now.

Open the timeline

Questions about Glen Waverley

Do houses in Glen Waverley have asbestos?+

Likely in the older stock. About 60% of Glen Waverley was built between the 1920s and 1980s, the peak asbestos period. Eaves, wet-area sheeting, fences and sheds are the usual places. Test before you drill, sand or demolish.

What soil is under Glen Waverley?+

Reactive clay. Moderately to highly reactive clay (Class M to H). Seasonal movement causes hairline cracking in brickwork and render. Modern slabs are engineered for it; older strip footings were not. Consistent moisture around the house is the whole game.

Can I subdivide a block in Glen Waverley?+

High subdivision pressure: Two or three homes replacing one on many streets. Original houses are becoming the minority and land value drives everything. Typical blocks are 650-800m². Check the zone, ResCode and any Neighbourhood Character or Heritage overlay for the exact street.

Street-level generalisations from council heritage studies, ABS dwelling-age data, soil classification maps and BuildPilot partner site reports. Every street has exceptions. A soil test, a building inspection and the council's overlay map beat any suburb profile, including this one.

Cookies on. Learn more