Real estate prices leap after Indian cricket team visit

[Dale61]

An unexpected flow-on from the recent Australian tour of the Indian cricket team has been a dramatic leap in property prices in the Melbourne suburb of Fairfield.

Real estate prices have risen up to 70 per cent after a local Indian restaurant placed photos in the main window of Sachin Tendulkar and other Indian stars dining at the establishment.

The Everest restaurant has long been known for its fine dining, but locals had no idea that it was of such international cricketing diet standards. Large autographed photographs of Tendulkar, along with VVS Laxman and captain Sourav Ganguly, and some general shots of the team tucking into Everest food have left Fairfield residents stunned.

“There’s no doubt it’s actually them – mostly they’re still wearing their playing gear which is a dead giveaway, but also kind of weird,” said local Jed Hinds. “They raved about the restaurant, saying things like ‘The food was great and the service excellent’. You just can’t buy raves like that.”

Local property agent, Stuart Hocking, said his office had initially struggled to work out why Fairfield property prices had surged, with auctions fetching prices more than 140 per cent above the reserve in some cases.

“It was only when my wife and I headed down to Station Street, Fairfield, for dinner and saw a large crowd gathered around the Everest windows that the penny dropped.”

In an unrelated story, property prices are unchanged in Sandringham where the Zimbabwean team bought take-away fish and chips midway through its summer campaign.

http://www.thebladder.com.au/content/news/displayContent.asp?CID=2498&EID=242