Forget Toorak and Brighton, Melbourne’s real housing money makers are places that have traded in their reputation for burglaries and “the odd bashing” for six-figure price surges.
Over the past 10 years the city’s top performing property markets have not been the homes of richlisters, it’s been our battler burbs that have piled on as much as 9.2 per cent a year since 2016.
Across Melbourne, 77 of the 100 suburbs you would have been best off having bought a home in 10 years ago still have a median house price below $1m.
And 22 of the remainder typically had homes selling for under the seven-figure mark in the same timeline.
Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula had the best run of the city’s housing markets, gaining 9.2 per cent a year for the past decade to add almost $930,000 to its old house value of $652,500.
Pearcedale in the city’s south east also surged into the million-dollar club with an almost $700,000 (9 per cent) growth spurt from just $504,500 in 2016.
And one-time battler ‘burb Frankston North’s $310,000 median house price of a decade ago is now topping $711,000, a $401,500 (8.7 per cent) gain.
Areas that have transformed from mostly farming and rural properties to housing estates in the past decade were excluded from the figures.
PropTrack economist Megan Lieu said the dominance of Melbourne’s battler burbs was a reflection of wider affordability pressures that had been in play for the past 10 years.
“If you go back 20 years, affordability was way better,” Ms Lieu said.
“But a lot of people have been pushed out of high-segment market sand people are going for the areas they can afford with a decent amount of land.”
The economist said it was likely that in the decade ahead it would be the same parts of Melbourne that continued to afford, as many of them still remained among the city’s most affordable options.
Ms Lieu noted that for a Victorian family earning the state’s typical household wage, $120,000 a year, just 18 per cent of homes, including units and houses, across the state were within reach in 2025.
However, she said the doubling in home prices achieved in some of the suburbs was less likely to be repeated in the coming decade as the past growth had been achieved at a time of record-low interest rates.
While the Reserve Bank this week held the nation’s cash rate, which underpins mortgage costs from banks, it is still at levels seen only briefly from 2024 to 2025, and prior to that not since 2011.
“So the expectation is that home prices won’t see the growth they have in the past few years,” Ms Lieu said.
However, those with the scope to reach higher up the property ladder, past the $1m mark, might find that home values could fall back in the nearer term.
OBrien Real Estate agent Mark Burke said Frankston North’s growth was in large part because it had been undervalued for a long time.
While decades ago Mr Burke said it had a deserved reputation for house burglaries and “the odd bashing”, things had changed dramatically.
“I talk to people and their parents say ‘don’t buy there, it’s rough’ – but it’s just bulls***t now,” he said.
“I walk around there day and night, and it’s fine.
“I do a lot of open homes there, too, and I don’t have any problems with people breaking in or anything like that.”
Latest crime stats data shows that Frankston North’s total number of criminal offences has plunged from 1345 in the year ending at March 30 in 2017 to just 712 for the same period in 2026.
“And it’s actually very good value for money, a lot of the homes are well built AV Jennings homes with Tasmanian Oak floors and concrete stumps and they up well,” Mr Burke said.
A mix of first-home buyers, investors and even second-home buyers were snapping up homes in the suburb today, which he said was leading to more civic pride.
Property Investment Professionals of Australia president Cate Bakos said in addition to affordability, home values in some suburbs would have also risen as a result of changes in housing in the suburb.
Ms Bakos noted that when new estates had been set up in some areas that had previously been dominated by much older stock or even old shacks or government housing, the increased building costs would have dragged up prices.
Beyond that, the post-Covid boom had led to significant increases in values for some areas, the buyer’s agent noted.
“In the last decade it seems to be the lower quartile that has really hummed in Victoria, but we might see a change there,” Ms Bakos said.
“If we see owner occupiers putting more money into the family home as opposed to investing in a second property, after changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax … I do believe we will see a change.”
Where You Should Have Bought A House 10 Years Ago
Source: PropTrack
Where You Should Have Bought A Unit 10 Years Ago
Source: PropTrack
Originally Published : Nathan Mawby | Herald Sun | 2026-06-20 View the original “Licensed by Copyright Agency. You must not copy this work without permission.”
