Everything has gone up in price over the past decade, right?
Cars, clothes, groceries, electricity costs – they all go up, right?
Well, believe it or not, while the price of almost everything else has skyrocketed in recent years, there are still some suburbs around Australia where you can buy a home for less than you could have in 2015.
PropTrack data has revealed the surprising inflation-defying suburbs across the country where you can still buy at time-traveller’s prices. And they’re not all in the sticks, with some shocking metropolitan options highlighted.
Here’s where you can buy for less than you could a decade ago in Australia’s largest cities.
ADELAIDE
New data has revealed SA’s inflation-defying properties – with homes in three suburbs or towns now having a lower median price than they did a decade ago.
According to REA Group data, buyers can now pick up a house in both Roxby Downs and Coober Pedy, or a unit in Hackham, for less than they would have needed to pay this time in 2015.
Roxby Downs houses currently have a median sale price of $275,000 – from 59 sales over the past 12 months – however, 10 years ago you this was sitting $115,000 higher at $390,000.
The median Hackham unit price is currently $195,500 – some $38,250 less than buyers needed in 2015 when their median was $233,750. And, at $80,000, a median-priced Coober Pedy house can now be bought for $9,000 less than the $89,000 you needed a decade ago.
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SYDNEY
They’re the Sydney suburbs multiple housing booms forgot – the pockets where homes are selling for similar prices to a decade ago or, in some cases, an average of over $100,000 less.
Bombshell analysis has revealed multiple suburbs where home prices are cheaper than in 2015 and even more where the increase over the 10 years was less than $50,000 – with growth below the rate of inflation.
Most of the suburbs were concentrated in the Parramatta region and around commuter hubs in the northwest, which have been a magnet for apartment developers in recent years.
The Parramatta region suburbs included Rosehill, where the median price of units has dropped $88,000 since 2015, and Ermington, where the median unit price fell by nearly $6000.
Concord West, sandwiched between the heavily developed Strathfield and Rhodes areas, recorded an $80,000 drop in unit prices over the decade, according to the PropTrack Market Trends data.
Sydney’s biggest unit price fall since 2015 was recorded in northwest suburb Rouse Hill, where units are now selling for an average of $131,000 cheaper than a decade ago.
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MELBOURNE
Melbourne property experts have warned an influx of new apartments around the Allan government’s new activity centres could be facing years of languishing prices.
It comes as new data reveals areas that had languished with flat or declining home prices for the past decade are now in the early stages of a turnaround.
Many of the suburbs had been struggling as a result of a rapid increase in housing volumes over the past 10 years.
But PropTrack figures show Docklands’ $611,000 median unit price is up $13,500 compared to March 2015.
It’s a significant turn around from as recently as August last year, when a typical apartment in the CBD-adjacent suburb was $17,000 in the red compared to 2014.
Werribee South, where the $402,500 typical unit today is $106,500 below where it was a decade ago, has also improved. In August, 2024, it was $150,500 below 2014 levels.
The new PropTrack figures suggest time may be running out for first-time homebuyers and Melburnians grappling with affordability woes to buy units at time-travelling prices.
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BRISBANE
The year is 2015. A loaf of bread costs about $3, a large takeaway coffee is almost $4, and it costs around $73 to fill a car with petrol.
Ten years later, the cost of living has clearly risen, but new figures show home prices in 16 Queensland suburbs are now actually cheaper and there are 125 suburbs where prices have only increased by $150,000 or less.
In Greater Brisbane, the only suburb where home prices are more affordable than they were a decade ago is Brassall in Ipswich, with a $160,654 median unit price, according to the latest PropTrack data.
But units are still very affordable compared to 2015 in Bowen Hills ($525,000), Milton ($572,500) and Fortitude Valley ($516,000) — all experiencing price rises of less than $50,000 in a decade. Brisbane houses are significantly more expensive than they were a decade ago, with Park Ridge in Logan one of the only suburbs where prices have hardly grown.
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