There are eight Melbourne suburbs where you can buy a house now and pay less than you would have five years ago. The suburbs where unit and apartment prices have gone backwards in the last five years is a longer list, featuring a range of inner-city and northern areas.
Melbourne Suburbs with Decreased House Prices
When it comes to houses, Brunswick West has lost the most ground, recording a 5-year median price fall of 9 per cent, down to $920,000.
Two other suburbs have fallen more than 5 per cent in the last five years, with Braybrook slipping 5.7 per cent to $678,000 and Oak Park slipping 5.1 per cent to $745,000.
Broadmeadows, Clayton, Pascoe Vale, Carlton, and Box Hill are the remaining areas where you will be paying less for a house now than you did in 2019.
Melbourne Suburbs with Falling Unit and Apartment Prices
For units and apartments, Carlton prices have dropped the most in the last five years, plummeting a whopping 33 per cent. Coburg was the next biggest slider, with buyers able to save around 18 per cent on a unit today compared to five years ago.
Malvern East, West Footscray, North Melbourne, Oakleigh, Glen Waverley, and Brunswick West units have all suffered median price drops between 10-15 per cent. Apartment prices in the Melbourne CBD have dropped 12.9 per cent over this period, and those in the Docklands around half that at 6.6 per cent.
Expert Insights on Property Market Trends
The figures come from Domain, and head of research Dr. Nicola Powell told The Age a lot had happened to the property market in the last five years. “A lot of these suburbs that experienced price falls are tenant led,” she said. “Demand is driven by investment activity … they are not owner occupier-led suburbs. Most of these locations have got either high levels of density – Carlton is probably a good example – or they are areas that are strongly led by investment activity, and we know investors have been shying away from the Melbourne market. Units are clearly the weaker point of Melbourne – there are more suburbs that have seen a deeper pullback in price over five years,” Powell told The Age.
Types of Offset Accounts
One positive coming from the fallen prices is the opportunity it presents to first-home buyers. “For first-home buyers, obviously, there is the pressure on saving that forever increasing deposit. Time has stood still for them in these locations, and I would argue that they are great locations for first-time buyers who want to be integrated with the city,” Buyers agent Cate Bakos told The Age. “Some of these areas have a lot of high-rise (apartments) and so that catches people out who bought off the plan and paid a premium, and then the property declines in value – you see that happen a lot in any market with high-rises.”
