Melbourne quarterly median home prices: 95 of Melbourne’s richest suburbs get richer | REIV

Melbourne’s richest suburbs have dominated a list of areas where house prices grew in the first three months of 2024, with a little known enclave topping the list. See if your area joined them.

102-116 McIntyres Rd, Park Orchards, gives an example of the kind of homes topping Melbourne’s growth markets for the start of 2024.

Home prices in a growing share of Melbourne’s richest suburbs are climbing back towards record levels.

But many of the city’s most affordable areas are lagging behind a home sales recovery.

New figures from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria show the city’s median house price rose $18,000 to $928,500 in the first three months of 2024 — though it was still down $75,000 compared to a year ago.

It was the first quarterly increase recorded by the state’s top real estate agents’ lobby group in two years.

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At the suburban level the REIV Quarterly Medians — which track home prices based purely on those that have sold — found 146 postcodes had gained value by the end of March this year.

But while 51 of them had a typical house price below the citywide median, 95 of them had a higher typical buy-in cost.

More than 200 markets recorded fewer than 30 sales for the first quarter of this year, which can result in more volatile median prices. They are marked with an asterisk in the graphics below.

REIV president Jacob Caine said while sales figures for three months could be volatile, the trend of a growing divide between higher-priced suburbs and more affordable ones was real.

Mr Caine said borrowing power had decreased substantially for everyone in the past two years, but there was more scope for those on higher incomes to change their lifestyle and financial habits to recoup lost capacity.

He noted it was also possible median prices in more affordable areas could have lost value as a result of an increase in the share of homes being sold that were poorer quality, cheaper investment properties which had lingered on the market for a while.

Park Orchards claimed Melbourne’s top spot for house price growth for the quarter with a 51 per cent uptick that added almost $1m to the suburb’s $2.91m current median.

10 May Rd, Toorak, sold for $1.75m in February — and shows the kind of more affordable addresses that helped lower the standing of what is normally Melbourne’s priciest postcode in the three months to the end of March.

Barry Plant Doncaster East director Theo Politis said while there had been growth in the suburb, the figures had been warped by a number of high-end sales — including an off-market January transfer for close to $6m.

“But at the moment there is a shift of buyers coming from Doncaster and Templestowe and moving to Park Orchards for bigger blocks … and it’s got leading public and private schools,” Mr Politis said.

But in a major upset, Toorak lost its position as the city’s most expensive housing market for the three month period — with its $3,072,500 March median below those of Brighton, Portsea and even neighbouring Malvern.

Mr Caine said the quirk would reflect the mix of properties sold in the first three months of the year being less representative of the suburb’s usual array of mansions. The suburb’s median price based on sales over the past year was much higher, at $5.08m.

In keeping with more affordable options notching more modest growth in the past quarter, Melbourne’s median unit price grew a modest $2000 to $634,500.

17-21 Milne Road, Park Orchards recently sold for $1.691m.

And in regional Victoria sales showed an about $9000 decline in the typical house price to $605,000, while country unit values were virtually flat at $418,000.

But with an interest-rate cut now widely believed to be the next major move from the Reserve Bank, Mr Caine noted it was possible growth would be on the cards for many areas in the coming three months — including the more affordable end of the market.

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