In the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia, the median home price was approximately 860,000 Australian dollars in the year 2023. In 2022, the median house price was about 890,000 Australian dollars.

Sydney had the highest median house value compared to other capital cities in Australia as of April 2025, with a value of over 1.47 million Australian dollars. Brisbane similarly had relatively high average residential housing values, passing Canberra and Melbourne to top the pricing markets for real estate across the country alongside Sydney. Housing affordability in Australia Throughout 2024, the average price of residential dwellings remained high across Australia, with several capital cities breaking price records. Rising house prices continue to be an issue for potential homeowners, with many low- and middle-income earners priced out of the market. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Australia’s house price-to-income ratio declined slightly to 119.2 index points. With the share of household income spent on mortgage repayments increasing alongside the disparity in supply and demand, inflating construction costs, and low borrowing capacity, the homeownership dream has become an unattainable prospect for the average person in Australia. Does the rental market offer better prospects? Renting for prolonged periods has become inevitable for many Australians due to the country’s largely inaccessible property ladder. However, record low vacancy rates and elevated median weekly house and unit rent prices within Australia’s rental market are making renting a less appealing prospect. In financial year 2024, households in the Greater Sydney metropolitan area reported spending around 30 percent of their household income on rent.

Median prices for dwellings/townhouses, and apartments by their year of settlement for the City of Melbourne. Median prices for dwellings/townhouses, and apartments by their year of settlement for the City of Melbourne.

Graph and download economic data for Real Residential Property Prices for Australia (QAUR628BIS) from Q1 1970 to Q4 2024 about Australia, residential, HPI, housing, real, price index, indexes, and price.

Key information about House Prices Growth

• Australia house prices grew 2.9% YoY in Dec 2024, following an increase of 5.8% YoY in the previous quarter.
• YoY growth data is updated quarterly, available from Sep 2004 to Dec 2024, with an average growth rate of 5.8%.
• House price data reached an all-time high of 24.1% in Dec 2021 and a record low of -6.1% in Mar 2019.

CEIC calculates quarterly House Price Index Growth from quarterly Residential Dwellings: Mean Price of Eight Capital Cities. The Australian Bureau of Statistics provides Residential Dwellings: Mean Price of Eight Capital Cities in local currency. House Price Index Growth prior to Q3 2012 is calculated from Residential Property Price Index: Weighted Average of Eight Capital Cities.

The house price-to-income ratio in Australia was ***** as of the fourth quarter of 2024. This ratio, calculated by dividing nominal house prices by nominal disposable income per head, increased from the previous quarter. The price-to-income ratio can be used to measure housing affordability in a specific area. Australia's property bubble There has been considerable debate over the past decade about whether Australia is in a property bubble or not. A property bubble refers to a sharp increase in the price of property that is disproportional to income and rental prices, followed by a decline. In Australia, rising house prices have undoubtedly been an issue for many potential homeowners, pricing them out of the market. Along with the average house price, high mortgage interest rates have exacerbated the issue. Is the homeownership dream out of reach? Housing affordability has varied across the different states and territories in Australia. In 2024, the median value of residential houses was the highest in Sydney compared to other major Australian cities, with Brisbane becoming an increasingly expensive city. Nonetheless, expected interest rate cuts in 2025, alongside the expansion of initiatives to improve Australia's dwelling stock, social housing supply, and first-time buyer accessibility to properties, may start to improve the situation. These encompass initiatives such as the Australian government's Help to Buy scheme and the Housing Australia Future Fund Facility (HAFFF) and National Housing Accord Facility (NHAF) programs.

Median prices for dwellings/townhouses, and apartments by their year of sale for the City of Melbourne.

Median prices for dwellings/townhouses, and apartments by their year of settlement for the City of Melbourne by CLUE Small area.

Urban housing location and locational amenities play an important role in median house price distribution and growth among the suburbs of many metropolitan cities in developed countries, such as Australia. In particular, distance from the central business district (CBD) and access to the transport network plays a vital role in house price distribution and growth over various suburbs in a city. However, Australian metropolitan cities have experienced increases in housing prices by up to 120% over the last 20 years, and the growth pattern was different across all suburbs in a city, such as in Melbourne. Therefore, this study examines the impacts of locational amenities on house price changes across various suburbs in Melbourne over the three census periods of 2006, 2011, and 2016, and suggests some strategic guidelines to improve the availability and accessibility of locational amenities in the suburbs with less concentrated amenities. This study chose three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Maribyrnong, Brimbank and Wyndham in Melbourne. Each LGA has been selected as a case study because many low-income people live in these LGAs’ areas. Further, some suburbs of these LGAs have maintained similar housing prices for an extended time, while some have not.The study applied a quantitative spatial methodology to examine the housing price distribution and growth patterns by evaluating the concentration and accessibility of locational urban amenities using GIS-based techniques and a spatial data set. The spatial data analyses were performed by spatial statistics methods to measure central tendency, Local Moran’s I of LISA clustering, Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), Kernel Density Smoothing (KDS). These tests were used to find the patterns of house price distribution and growth. The study also identified the accessibility of amenities in relation to median house price distribution and growth. Spatial Autoregressive Regression (SAR), Spatial Lag, and Spatial Errors models were used to identify the spatial dependencies to test the statistical significance between the median house price and the concentration and access of local urban amenities over the three census years.This study found three median house price distribution and growth patterns among the suburbs in the three selected LGAs. There are growth differences in the median house price for different census years between 2006 and 2011, 2011 and 2016, and 2006 and 2016. The Low-High (LH) median house price distribution clusters between 2006 and 2011 became High-High (HH) clusters between the census years 2011 and 2016, and 2006 and 2016. The median house price growth rate increased significantly in the census years between 2006 and 2011. Most of the HH median house price distribution and growth clusters’ tendencies were closer to the Melbourne CBD. On the other hand, the Low-Low (LL) distribution and growth clusters were closer to Melbourne’s periphery. The suburbs located further away had low access to amenities. The HH median house price clusters are located closer to stations and educational institutes. Better access to locational amenities led to more significant HH median house price clusters, as the median house price increased at an increasing rate between 2011 and 2016. The HH median house price clusters recorded more growth between 2006 and 2016. The suburbs with train stations had better access to most other locational amenities. Almost all HH median house price clusters had train stations with higher access to amenities.There was a consistent relationship between median house price distribution, growth patterns, and locational urban amenities. The spatial lag and spatial error model tests showed that between 2006 and 2011, and 2006 and 2016, there were differences in the amenities. Still, these did not affect the outcomes in observations, and were related only to immeasurable factors for some reason. Therefore, the higher house price in the neighbouring suburb could increase the price in that suburb. The research also found from the regression analysis that highly significant amenities confirming travel time to the CBD by bus, and distance to the CBD, were negatively related in all three previous census years. This negative relationship estimates that the house price growth is lower when the distance is longer. Due to this travel to the CBD by bus is not a popular option for households. The train stations are essential for high house price growth. The house price growth is low when homes are further away from train stations and workplaces.This thesis has three contributions. Firstly, it uses the Rational Choice Theory (RCT), providing a theoretical basis for analysing households’ mutually interdependent preferences of urban amenities that are found to regulate house price growth clusters. Secondly, the methodological contribution uses the GIS-defined cluster mapping and spatial statistics in queries and reasoning, measurements, transformations, descriptive summaries, optimisation, and hypothesis testing models between house price distribution and growth, and access to urban locational amenities. Thirdly, this research contributes to designing practical guidelines to identify local urban amenities for planning local area development.Overall, this thesis demonstrates that the median house price distribution and growth patterns are highly correlated with the concentration and accessibility of locational urban amenities among the suburbs in three selected LGAs in Melbourne over the three census years (i.e., 2006, 2011, and 2016). The findings bring to the fore the need for research at the local and state levels to identify specific amenities relevant to the middle-class house distribution strategy, which can be helpful for investors, estate agents, town planners, and builders as partners for effective local development. The future study might use social, psychological, and macroeconomic variables not considered or used in this research.

In the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia, the median sales price of vacant house blocks was 380,000 Australian dollars in the year 2023. In 2022, the median price for vacant house blocks was about 374,000 Australian dollars.

The average housing costs for Australian renters of private property amounted to 415 Australian dollars per week in 2020. In 2022, between 21 to 29 percent of the household income of renters was spent on rent across the country.

Short-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic

With the global outbreak of COVID-19, the historically strong Australian housing market is not immune. In the short-term, the country saw a drop in rental housing demand as a direct result of migration ceasing, falling overseas student numbers, and younger people opting to stay home. With travel opening up, a spike in rental vacancy rates is expected, with short-term rentals, such as those from travel websites, suddenly flooding the long-term rental market. The influx of housing may ease pressure on potential tenants in certain areas, and it may have the carry-on effect of rental costs stabilizing, or in some cases declining. In the inner suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, for instance, there has already been a significant increase in rental listings compared to the previous year.

The report lists the percentage shift in median prices between quarters as well as the change over a 12-month period. An overall Melbourne metropolitan median sale price and country Victoria median sale price are also included for each property type.

This statistic shows median price for a one-bedroom apartment in Melbourne, Australia in 2015/2016, by region. That year, the median price for a one-bedroom apartment in Outer Melbourne was 259,000 Australian dollars.

In 2024, one square meter of greenfield land cost an average of 1,116 Australian dollars in Melbourne, Australia. This remained around the same level compared to the green land cost per square meter in the previous year.

Mortgage Rate in Australia decreased to 5.97 percent in March from 6.03 percent in February of 2025. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for Australia Mortgage Rate.

The Toorak area was the most expensive housing suburb in Melbourne, Australia as of March 2025, with a median property value of around *** million Australian dollars. The Canterbury suburb had the next highest prices for housing, at around **** million dollars.

In the third quarter of 2023, the median price of residential property transfers for established housing in Melbourne came to around 820 thousand Australian dollars. The highest median price of established housing transfers within the given time period was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021.

As of June 2024, the average weekly rent for a house in Sydney was 750 Australian dollars, which was the highest average rent across all major cities in Australia that year. That same year, the average weekly rent for a house in Melbourne was around 580 Australian dollars.

In December 2024, retail property rent asking prices were forecasted to increase by around 1.87 percent. The Commercial Property Asking Price Index tracks the monthly change in vendor sentiment towards commercial rental properties advertised in Australia.