The six suburbs where it's cheaper to buy a house today than it was five years ago

There are only six suburbs nationwide where it’s cheaper to buy a house today than it was in 2019, new data has revealed.

Since 2019, Australia’s property market has moved so fast and prices have risen by so much that, out of 2840 suburbs nationwide, just six – scattered across Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory – have a median house price lower than it was five years ago.

“It really demonstrates the craziness that we’ve seen over the last five years in terms of property prices,” says Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell.

“We saw a national property boom where every suburb was experiencing price growth, apparently, apart from these six, but there was a national widespread uplift in property price. 

“It’s hard for first-time buyers when affordability isn’t improving in any of these locations, but we also have to pepper that with the flip side – when property prices are falling, and somebody has to sell, and they’re selling at a loss, that also has a massive negative impact on families, households and their financial circumstances.”

North Melbourne, next to the CBD, has a median house price of $1.13 million and dropped 9 per cent in five years and 9.8 per cent in the past 12 months.

SOLD - $845,000

74 Chapman Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051

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Property prices in Melbourne suburbs have been stagnant or fallen due to a mass exodus of landlords in recent months, says agent Charles Bongiovanni of Belle Property Carlton/Melbourne/North Melbourne.

“We have got quite a bit more supply of stock coming onto the market than a few years ago when all the new [tax] regulations came in, sSo there was a bit of a spiking stock,” he says.

The most recent sellers include landlords who bought at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and are now selling “at prices a little bit lower than they [paid],” Bongiovanni says.

“We’ve had some sales recently where someone might have bought a home for $1.32 million and then sold at an auction for $1.28 million,” he says.

However, Bongiovanni believes the market will stabilise once more owner occupiers enter the market and start improving older properties and making them more valuable.

The Melbourne suburb of Box Hill, 10 kilometres from the CBD, has a median of $1.28 million, having dropped 7.4 per cent in five years and 11 per cent in the past 12 months.

SOLD - $1,310,000

7 Wavell Street, Box Hill VIC 3128

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It is a small suburb that only sees a handful of house sales each year compared to apartments, and the median price drastically changes depending on what category of homes sells, says local agent Calvin Chan of CHN Real Estate Group.

“We’ve seen a lot of high-density development in Box Hill, but I think that there’s been a shift away from high-density developments as they’re not as profitable, shifting to more of a low-density development,” he says.

While Box Hill might have seen price slips in recent months, Chan attributes this to the recent Victorian land tax, which has dissuaded many investors from holding property.

“[Tax changes are] obviously going to have an effect on the prices, but I think in the long run, Box Hill is still a very desirable suburb,” he says. “The price probably would have been stronger without those issues.”

Melbourne as a whole has experienced subdued conditions over the past few years and has been the poorest performing market since 2020, Powell says. 

“The [Melbourne] market overall is still struggling,” she says. “It’s very unusual to see a market that’s pretty much done nothing on a capital city level for a couple of years now, where prices have moved sideways with a little bit of growth and a little bit of decline.

“There will come a time when Melbourne’s market dynamics will turn around.”

In the Northern Territory’s Alice Springs, the median house price in the suburb of Gillen is $440,000, a year-on-year drop of 12 per cent. Prices are down 0.9 per cent over the past five years.

SOLD - $535,000

13 Ochre Court, Gillen NT 0870

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The higher-than-average crime rates Gillen has experienced in the past few years have caused prices to fall, says agent Gail Tuxworth of LJ Hooker Alice Springs.

“Gillen is not unique to the other suburbs in Alice Springs, in that they’ve all seen a decline in the past 18 months,” she says. “It’s just that Gillen is one of the largest subdivisions, so there are probably more properties there. 

“We’ve had more people leaving town than coming in [due to high crime rates].”

Owner-occupiers and investors are leaving in droves, leaving Gillen with a lot of supply and very little demand, she adds.

However, “we are feeling positive with our change of governance, that the real estate market here is feeling positive about the future, because our chief minister has handed down a host of new laws, changing laws, that hopefully will affect overall crime rate given time”, Tuxworth says.

“In the next 12 to 18 months, we may see some change there, with people feeling a little more confident and positive about coming to Alice Springs and staying in Alice Springs and coming here to buy rather than just to rent.”

While two Western Australian suburbs are cheaper now than they were in 2019, this is not necessarily indicative of the current situation, where property prices have risen statewide in the past 12 to 24 months.

For example, in the coastal town of Geraldton, the median house price is $351,650,  a fall of 4.7 per cent in the past five years. However, in the past 12 months, prices have increased by 11.6 per cent, indicating it’s transforming into a property market with a tremendous growth trajectory.

West Australian agents predict the prices will continue to rise and don’t expect to see any more price dips

“It’s been going up for about four years straight – now we’re getting nearly into the fifth year,” says Seth Jones of Professionals Geraldton.

SOLD - $240,000

42A Brede Street, Geraldton WA 6530

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“We’ve had a couple of plateaus, probably one or two, throughout the four-year period, where things stabilised for a while, but over time, they’ve gone up.

“One of the reasons for the growth is because, at present, building costs are so expensive, and they’re about to go up again. People aren’t really building too many homes at the moment.”