House prices in Sunshine are nudging seven figures with a $935,000 suburb price record set at auction on Saturday.

A renovated five-bedroom house in Cornwall Road attracted two bidders willing to fight hard for the keys.

The price for the California bungalow, hints at the genesis of gentrification in the blue collar suburb with an industrial heart.

Photo: Jas Stephens

The winning bidders have paid the highest ever sum for a Sunshine house, according to Domain Group data.

Buyers advocate Cate Bakos said Footscray is the last bastion of period Victorian houses at such a price point.

“In my opinion, Sunshine is ripe for the picking. There are some really beautiful streets and pockets of Sunshine where amenity is great. It is seven stops on the train to Southern Cross station, which is not considerable.

Photo: Jas Stephens

“It is still a suburb that is gentrifying – there would be a lot of people shocked to read about that price.

“Sub-$1 million to be within that travel time to the CBD is not a hard pill to swallow.”

Jas Stephens’ Branko Lemaic, the listing agent for 115 Cornwall Road, said the 630 square metre block appealed to family home buyers.

Photo: Jas Stephens

“Most of the people with larger budgets to spend are going across to Sunshine and are getting exceptional value for their money,” he said.

“There were two bidders and both are from Footscray.”

Mr Lemaic said the “spillover effect” is driving demand for property in Sunshine.

Photo: Jas Stephens

“Once one suburb gets out of price reach for people, they naturally will look at the next option and what is around and what has a similar style of housing and that is what is happening to Sunshine at the moment,” he said.

“It is full of a lot of rich history, it is a great transport hub and an upgraded train station. It’s multicultural, diverse and a large suburb overall.

“And it always will be 12km or 13km from the city, and if you have a look on the periphery of the city on the other side, in the north and east suburbs that are that distance from the city, houses aren’t selling for $900,000.”