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Suburb spotlight: Duncraig

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Erick LopezThe West Australian
Sorrento Bowls Club.
Camera IconSorrento Bowls Club. Credit: Supplied.

All about family

Located about 16km north of Perth, the suburb of Duncraig is home to a tight-knit community, with many residents being the original homeowners.

According to the City of Joondalup Mayor Albert Jacob, Duncraig is named after an area in Scotland and is a large established residential suburb with a population of about 15,000 people.

With the development of the suburb dating back to the late 1960s and rapid growth occurring during the 1970s and early 1980s, Duncraig is located in an ideal position bounded by Mitchell Freeway, Beach Road, Marmion Avenue and Hepburn Avenue – making it incredibly accessible and only one suburb away from the coast and Hillarys Boat Harbour.

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The suburb is certainly no stranger to individual success, with Formula One international superstar Daniel Ricciardo having grown up in Duncraig.

Earlier this year the City of Joondalup inducted Mr Ricciardo into its Walk of Fame, with his name featuring prominently on one of 11 pavers installed along Central Walk in Joondalup.

Melanie Perkins – the Co-Founder and CEO of the free-to-use online graphic design platform Canva – is another one of Duncraig’s high achievers, founding the business in her Duncraig apartment. Canva is now valued at almost $20 billion, making Ms Perkins one of Australia’s richest women.

Spraggon George Real Estate Senior Sales Consultant Matt Parker has extensive knowledge on Duncraig, having grown up in the suburb and working at Spraggon George Real Estate since 1996.

“My parents moved here in 1982, and it’s just a lovely suburb to grow up in,” he said. “It is mostly surrounded by families, and the addition of Warwick train station back in the mid-80s was a big boom to the area.

“Not a lot has changed in Duncraig – that’s part of its appeal because it started off as a family suburb and is still a family suburb.”

Mr Jacob similarly gave great praise to Duncraig for being a family-focused suburb.

“Everything great about the Australian way of life can be found in the beautiful suburb of Duncraig,” he said.

“With its abundance of beautiful parks, friendly neighbourhoods and access to public transport, local amenities and schools – it is the ideal slice of suburbia and is a great place to raise a family.”

A hot spot for well-respected schools is another reason for Duncraig’s high appeal, with the suburb boasting St Stephen’s School and Duncraig Senior High School.

While handy amenities such as Glengarry Private Hospital, various shopping centres and a

park at almost every corner has the local residents spoilt for convenience.

A large sporting complex at Percy Doyle Reserve – home to Sorrento Tennis Club, Sorrento Bowling Club and National Premier Leagues’ Sorrento Football Club – provides an abundance of options for those living in Duncraig.

The Jackson family.
Camera IconThe Jackson family. Credit: Supplied.

Spilling the tea on the new kid on the block

Flavour Duncraig is the newest addition to the suburb, with a focus on providing the local community with healthy juices and smoothies.

Opening its doors in April, Flavour Duncraig Owner Leigh Jackson lives just five minutes away from Duncraig in the nearby suburb of Greenwood, and is well aware of the area and its need for a fun and healthy business.

“There’s a lot of primary schools around here, so I kind of knew what kind of clientele I would attract when opening something like this in the community,” she said.

“We’ve been doing really well so far, with a lot of returning customers.”

Located in Glengarry Shopping Centre, the shop is a modern space filled with plants and bright pops of teal, put together by Leigh’s husband Brad who is a carpenter by trade.

Ms Jackson said the loaded teas had become the most popular drink of choice, with a strawberry and peach tea named Sorrento Sunset paying homage to the local area.

“We do these drinks called loaded teas, which are pretty much just a healthy green tea or chamomile tea base infused with aloe vera,” she said.

“It’s got different fruit flavours – we use vitamin B and C through fruits like watermelon or strawberry, for example.

“It’s all healthy stuff, and I feel like people are going for that option because there’s nothing like it around.”

Ms Jackson said the diverse demographic meant a wide range of customers had all come together to support local businesses.

“I think, for me, the biggest thing is the real small-knit community,” she said. “The relationships that I’m building with the return customers has been amazing.

“During the last lockdown, we started doing takeaway and did our biggest sales ever – I think the people here are just really big on supporting local.”

Locals servicing locals

Priding themselves on a medium-sized portfolio, Spraggon George Real Estate’s property management side of the business is brimming with local knowledge.

Spraggon George Real Estate Principal James Cornell said its property management services were mostly located along the northern coastal suburbs surrounding Duncraig, with many of the agents living in the area and celebrating 25 years of operation.

“We have 60 or 70 per cent of our management portfolio within 5km of our office,” he said. “We’re a full-service agency, so having property management, sales and formal evaluations, we’re able to provide the full spectrum of advice in addition to the property management suite.”

Mr Cornell said undertaking the services of the agency, compared to private management, meant maximum awareness of where the local market sat, through stringent market analysis ensuring the best rental prices for owners and the right tenants.

“We see situations where we will pick up a private rental and they’ll be substantially under-rented because they haven’t kept in touch with the market,” he said.

“We keep abreast with all legislation – we’re bound by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety – Consumer Protection, as well as all of the licensing regulations, audit and trust accounts.”

“Renters and owners know their money is safe, and we have a long list of qualified tradespeople and contractors that do work for us, so we can attend to things very quickly – and that’s the major differences between public and private.”

The medium-sized business means clients are not lost for support within a large company, or too small where the operations are affected by holidays or sickness.

A strong relationship between property owners and property agents is crucial, according to Mr Cornell, highlighting the stalwart staff at Spraggon George Real Estate as key to its success with clients.

“We’re able to retain staff for a long time which is really important for owners to have long-term property managers dedicated,” he said.

“We’ve had some staff here in well excess of a decade.”

A suburb you never want to leave

Boasting 700sqm single residential blocks in close proximity to the coast and about 16km from the CBD, plus a strong community connection – Duncraig is a gold mine.

With 20 years in the real estate industry, Spraggon George Real Estate Senior Sales Consultant Chris Elhers has been operating in Duncraig for about four months, saying that he puts the people first and real estate second in large part due to the friendly community who absolutely love their suburb.

“What I love about what I do is I door knock all day just talking to people,” he said. “There seems to be a lot of people in their late 60s, and I just get on with them.

“The sales I’ve been making have been to people who are not clients but friends and extensions of my friendships with others.”

Mr Elhers said he found Duncraig unique, as he had not seen another suburb where the residents did not want to leave.

“Even though they know the residents have to move or downsize, their first option will be to think ‘I have to find somewhere in Duncraig’,” he said.

“I also find a lot of the kids are coming back to their roots here, whether it’s from overseas or down from the Scarborough area.

“They’re all coming back now and starting families, so it’s just a lovely family place.”

The ageing population has created an interesting dilemma for retirees who are looking to downsize but are unable to find properties in the area to downsize to, making for an even higher demand and low supply of homes available on the market.

Spraggon George Real Estate Senior Sales Consultant Matt Parker said jam-packed home opens were a common sight in Duncraig.

“Whenever you get a listing in the area, it’s really popular and not unusual to have a few people down the driveway wanting to come through during a home open,” he said.

Mr Parker said parts of the suburb had been rezoned in the last three to four years to accommodate infill housing, however most of Duncraig remained single residential and was very much the appeal for family buyers.

“The suburb hasn’t lost its family orientation,” he said. “However, recent rezoning changes have introduced different styles of accommodation aimed at downsizers and younger markets – younger people, units and apartments – a lot of the houses are now being bought just to knock down and rebuild.

“It’s happening a lot in many parts of Duncraig.”

With much of the construction of Duncraig done in the 70s and 80s, the suburb has a distinctive retro aesthetic of dark brown and red bricks.

Mr Parker said it was lovely seeing younger people buying into the suburb and giving the homes a facelift, bringing it out of the 80s style seen in various abodes.

On a whole, he said Duncraig was becoming more and more popular as time passed and real estate agents in the area were constantly looking for good family homes to sell to match demand.

Duncraig suburb stats.
Camera IconDuncraig suburb stats. Credit: REIWA

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