Glen Waverley

Lifestyle & dining

The Glen Waverley activity centre, anchored by Kingsway and the streets around The Glen shopping centre, is one of the busiest and most diverse dining strips in Melbourne's east. It's particularly known for its concentration of high-quality Chinese, Malaysian, Korean and Japanese restaurants, drawing visitors from well beyond the suburb's borders, alongside cafes, bakeries and bubble tea spots that cater to a young, family-oriented crowd.

Beyond the main strip, life in Glen Waverley tends to be family-focused and suburban, with weekends built around sport, local parks and the town centre rather than nightlife. It's a suburb where people tend to stay close to home for most of their day-to-day needs.

Shopping

The Glen shopping centre is the retail heart of the suburb, offering a full range of department stores, fashion, supermarkets and specialty retailers under one roof, supplemented by the strip shopping along Kingsway with its mix of independent grocers, restaurants and services. Between them, residents have little need to leave the suburb for everyday shopping, and the precinct draws solid weekend foot traffic from surrounding suburbs like Mount Waverley and Wheelers Hill.

Getting around

Glen Waverley sits at the terminus of the Glen Waverley railway line, giving direct train access into the city and making the station itself a focal point of the town centre, ringed by cafes and shops. Bus routes connect the suburb to neighbouring Mount Waverley, Wheelers Hill, Notting Hill and Burwood East, while the Monash Freeway and EastLink are both within easy reach for drivers heading further afield, making it a practical base for commuters as well as families who mostly stay local.

Schools & families

Education is one of Glen Waverley's biggest drawcards. Families have a wide choice of primary schools including Glen Waverley Primary School, Glen Waverley South Primary School, Glendal Primary School and Camelot Rise Primary School, along with Glenallen School for students with additional needs. Wesley College's Glen Waverley Campus adds an independent option locally, and the suburb's broader reputation for strong secondary schooling is a major reason it continues to attract buyers prepared to pay a premium to get into the area.

The property market

Glen Waverley's property market reflects its status as a premium eastern-suburbs address, with a median house price of $1.67 million after growth of 6.9% recently, and units sitting far more accessibly at a median of $650,000. Median rent of $890 a week points to solid demand from tenants as well as owner-occupiers, particularly given the suburb's schools and transport links.

Current listings show houses still dominate the market at 63%, with apartments and units making up 22%, townhouses 15% and a small sliver of vacant land. That mix gives buyers a genuine spread of options, from freestanding family homes on larger blocks to more affordable townhouse and apartment stock closer to the town centre and station, making Glen Waverley workable for first-home buyers chasing a unit as well as upgraders after a family house.