Apartment living is catching on right throughout Melbourne.

For the first time ever apartment sales outside Melbourne’s CBD are outstripping those within it. That is the key message out of a recently released report by property consultants Urbis.

The report titled Melbourne Apartment Essentials stated that of 267 apartment sales in Melbourne in the March quarter, 58% of them were in the city’s middle ring. Additionally, those sold in the inner ring were outside the CBD.

“These results show that more and more people are embracing apartment living in Melbourne’s fantastic middle ring suburbs,” says Christian Numa, Director of Sales at Amity Property Group.

“This is certainly what we’re seeing at Amity. Fantastic developments in Melbourne’s south east where there is great access to transport and characterful shopping strips are proving especially popular.”

The report said that on top of transport improvements, the National Employment and Innovation Clusters such as Monash and Dandenong is driving investment as employment opportunities and services improve.

The report also allayed fears of a correction in apartment prices. The weighted average sales price for the March 2017 was $706,391, a $44,476 increase compared to the December 2016 quarter.

This increase was driven by the popularity of two-bathroom, two-bedroom apartments which accounted for 35% of total sales, up 29% on the December quarter.

Urbis Director of Property Economics and Research Mark Dawson said this figure illustrated that there is a shift in the market occurring with more owner occupiers coming into the market in comparison to investors.