The 14 capital city suburbs where houses are under $1 million and getting cheaper

Property prices are gaining momentum across Australia but there are still a handful of suburbs where houses are under $1 million – and gettingcheaper, new data reveals.

Analysis from the latest Domain House Price Report found 14 suburbs across Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra where median house prices are more affordable than they were 12 months ago.

The fact that some smaller property markets have fallen in value while real estate in the rest of Australia is rising demonstrates the difference in dynamics at a suburb level, says Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell.

“Not all suburbs move at the same pace,” she says. “Premium suburbs lead price growth, and you start to see prices rise. And then what happens is the ripple effect occurs. It sprawls out into the middle and outer locations.

“More affordable areas tend to hold firmer during weak points in the market, but they don’t tend to see as strong gains as in some of those more premium locations.”

Chambers Flat, a semi-rural suburb 27 kilometres south of Brisbane’s CBD, has a median house price of $615,000 after falling by 29.4 per cent in the past 12 months.

Local agent Lauren Molijn of Real Estate Domain Team says there has been a dynamic shift in what’s available in the market.

“The bigger acreages have sold, and they’re being subdivided into small residential homes,” she says. “It’s simply that there’s a lot more [houses available].

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“A block of five acres that sold for $2.5 million four to five years ago, now has 100 little houses on 400 square metres [of land].”

The subdivision of land has made property more affordable, and now first-home buyers and investors are rushing to the area, Molijn says.

“Everything coming on the market is selling really fast.”

The Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong, five kilometres from the CBD, has a median of $910,000 and has dropped by 9.5 per cent in the past 12 months.

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There are only a handful of sales each year in Maribyrnong compared to neighbouring suburbs like Braybrook, Maidstone and Sunshine, so the median price drastically changes depending on what sort of houses sell, says local agent Quoc Ho of Metro Real Estate.

“One year, you might have better quality [houses] for sale or sold, and the next year, you might have lower quality [houses] sold.”

Some areas of Maribyrnong occasionally flood, which has made some prospective buyers hesitant, but people are “quick to forget it”, Ho says.

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While Maribyrnong may have experienced price slips over the past year, Ho says it’s a price correction following a series of expensive sales, rather than an ongoing downward trend.

As Melbourne’s property market has entered a price upswing, Powell predicts there will be fewer inexpensive suburbs available.

“Melbourne is undervalued compared to other capital cities,” Powell says. “It’s seen the weakest growth over a five-year period, and what that presents is an opportunity of value for buyers.”

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In the suburb of Gungahlin in Canberra, the median house price dropped by 7.3 per cent to $920,000 in the past year.

The development of new suburbs and homes nearby has made Gungahlin properties cheaper to buy now than 12 months ago, says local agent Theo Koutsikamanis of Bastion Property Group.

“They’re just building so many free-standing dwellings and townhouses out there, and there’s more than enough for the demand,” he says.

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“If they bought in 2021 or 2022, I know straight away I’m going to have a conversation with the [seller] and tell them that we’re probably not going to break even, but that’s just how it is.

“A year ago, people were still paying premiums.”

Koutsikamanis says the abundance of “newer spec houses” has brought down the median price, but prices continue to rise for older and larger houses.

“Larger homes with pools and big garages and big internal living are always going to be highly sought-after, and they’re always going to be received well.”

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