Melbourne's most — and least — affordable suburbs

Buying the median house in Toorak takes 52 years of the median local household income. Buying the median house in Strathtulloh, out on Melton's growth front, takes 5.4. Between those two extremes sit all 329 Greater Melbourne suburbs with an active housing market — and where any one of them falls tells you something a raw price tag can't: how stretched that price actually is against what the people who live there earn.

The headline numbers

329 Greater Melbourne suburbs ranked by years of local household income needed to buy the median house
11.3 years is the metro median — what it takes in a "typical" suburb
14 suburbs require 20+ years of local income — all of them blue-chip east or bayside
5 suburbs require under 6 years — all in the outer growth corridors (Melton, Wyndham)

How this is calculated

Take a suburb's median house price (Valuer-General Victoria) and divide it by the median annual household income for that suburb (ABS 2021 Census, weekly income × 52). The result is a rough, visceral affordability gauge: how many years of a typical local household's entire income it would take to buy the median house there, assuming — unrealistically — that every dollar went to the purchase.

It's not a savings timeline (nobody saves 100% of income, and most buyers borrow rather than save the full price), and it's a relative indicator, not a literal one. Census household income is wage-based, so it under-counts the true earnings of the wealthiest suburbs, where investment income doesn't show up in the numbers. Toorak's real multiple is almost certainly lower than 52 — but the ranking itself, which suburbs sit furthest from what their own residents earn, still holds.

The least affordable suburbs in Melbourne

The top of this list is a roll-call of Melbourne's blue-chip east and bayside. Every one of the top 14 needs 20 or more years of local household income to buy the median house.

#	Suburb	Council	Median house	Household income /yr	Years of income
1	Toorak	Stonnington	$6,900,000	$131,716	52.4
2	Hawthorn	Boroondara	$3,070,000	$111,540	27.5
3	Balwyn	Boroondara	$2,700,000	$102,700	26.3
4	East Melbourne	Melbourne	$3,125,000	$121,940	25.6
5	Carlton	Melbourne	$1,690,000	$67,184	25.2
6	Box Hill	Whitehorse	$1,645,000	$65,884	25.0
7	Hawthorn East	Boroondara	$2,888,000	$117,156	24.7
8	Brighton	Bayside	$3,355,000	$140,920	23.8
9	Armadale	Stonnington	$2,535,500	$114,036	22.2
10	Sandringham	Bayside	$2,495,000	$120,276	20.7
11	Glen Iris	Boroondara	$2,685,000	$129,532	20.7
12	Glen Huntly	Glen Eira	$1,970,000	$97,604	20.2
13	Alphington	Yarra	$2,550,000	$126,308	20.2
14	Canterbury	Boroondara	$3,000,000	$149,604	20.1
15	Malvern	Stonnington	$2,690,000	$135,512	19.9
16	Middle Park	Port Phillip	$2,940,000	$147,472	19.9
17	Camberwell	Boroondara	$2,530,000	$127,764	19.8
18	Elsternwick	Glen Eira	$2,250,000	$114,868	19.6
19	Parkville	Melbourne	$1,914,400	$98,020	19.5
20	Balwyn North	Boroondara	$2,360,000	$121,992	19.3
21	Kew	Boroondara	$2,510,000	$129,844	19.3
22	Mont Albert	Whitehorse	$2,310,000	$120,848	19.1
23	Caulfield North	Glen Eira	$2,180,000	$114,660	19.0
24	St Kilda	Port Phillip	$1,750,000	$92,508	18.9
25	Ormond	Glen Eira	$2,015,000	$107,224	18.8
26	Doncaster	Manningham	$1,557,500	$82,784	18.8
27	South Yarra	Stonnington	$1,980,000	$107,276	18.5
28	Black Rock	Bayside	$2,320,000	$125,632	18.5
29	Glen Waverley	Monash	$1,800,000	$99,736	18.0
30	Doncaster East	Manningham	$1,655,000	$93,184	17.8
31	South Melbourne	Port Phillip	$1,932,500	$109,252	17.7
32	Fairfield	Yarra	$1,800,000	$102,284	17.6
33	Malvern East	Stonnington	$2,180,000	$123,916	17.6
34	Elwood	Port Phillip	$1,910,000	$108,992	17.5
35	Murrumbeena	Glen Eira	$1,870,000	$106,964	17.5
36	Carnegie	Glen Eira	$1,700,000	$97,656	17.4
37	Eaglemont	Banyule	$2,581,000	$149,032	17.3
38	Caulfield	Glen Eira	$1,930,000	$111,436	17.3
39	Ivanhoe	Banyule	$1,999,000	$116,064	17.2
40	Surrey Hills	Boroondara	$2,200,000	$130,156	16.9

Data as of 2026 Q2 (VGV medians) · ABS 2021 Census. Showing the 40 least affordable of 329 suburbs analysed. Suburb-level indicators — always confirm the specific parcel.

Toorak's 52.4 is a genuine outlier even against its blue-chip neighbours — more than double second-placed Hawthorn. Some of that is the affordability formula being harsh on very high-income, low-turnover markets (a handful of ultra-expensive sales can move a thin market's median a lot), but the underlying story — price has pulled a long way ahead of local income — holds across the whole top 20, not just Toorak.

The most affordable suburbs in Melbourne

This is the side of the ledger most affordability content skips, because "expensive suburbs" makes a better headline than "cheap suburbs" — but if you're actually trying to buy, this table is more useful than the one above. Every suburb here needs under 8 years of local household income for the median house, and all five suburbs under 6 years are in Melbourne's western and northern growth corridors.

#	Suburb	Council	Median house	Household income /yr	Years of income
1	Strathtulloh	Melton	$615,000	$113,776	5.4
2	Manor Lakes	Wyndham	$660,000	$119,392	5.5
3	Thornhill Park	Melton	$605,000	$104,260	5.8
4	Fraser Rise	Melton	$700,000	$118,352	5.9
5	Aintree	Melton	$725,000	$122,096	5.9
6	Kalkallo	Hume	$650,000	$106,444	6.1
7	Truganina	Melton	$672,000	$110,552	6.1
8	Tarneit	Wyndham	$675,000	$109,356	6.2
9	Williams Landing	Wyndham	$840,000	$134,264	6.3
10	Clyde	Casey	$725,000	$111,904	6.5
11	Cobblebank	Melton	$650,000	$99,840	6.5
12	Weir Views	Melton	$597,500	$92,560	6.5
13	Burnside Heights	Melton	$770,000	$116,792	6.6
14	Diggers Rest	Melton	$680,000	$103,532	6.6
15	Clyde North	Casey	$757,000	$112,476	6.7
16	Wyndham Vale	Wyndham	$615,000	$91,832	6.7
17	Point Cook	Wyndham	$842,000	$124,384	6.8
18	Officer	Cardinia	$775,000	$110,500	7.0
19	Harkness	Melton	$637,000	$91,104	7.0
20	Derrimut	Brimbank	$825,000	$118,144	7.0
21	Wollert	Whittlesea	$725,000	$102,908	7.0
22	Mickleham	Hume	$717,000	$102,336	7.0
23	Belgrave	Yarra Ranges	$816,000	$114,504	7.1
24	Hillside (Melton - Vic.)	Melton	$812,500	$113,880	7.1
25	Mernda	Whittlesea	$757,500	$104,572	7.2
26	Botanic Ridge	Casey	$957,500	$132,704	7.2
27	Brookfield	Melton	$626,300	$85,384	7.3
28	Sunbury	Hume	$740,000	$100,100	7.4
29	South Morang	Whittlesea	$810,000	$108,056	7.5
30	Caroline Springs	Melton	$835,000	$110,968	7.5
31	Doreen	Nillumbik	$833,500	$111,852	7.5
32	Sandhurst	Frankston	$1,075,000	$141,128	7.6
33	Taylors Hill	Melton	$938,000	$123,448	7.6
34	Narre Warren South	Casey	$857,500	$112,216	7.6
35	Seabrook	Hobsons Bay	$811,000	$106,184	7.6
36	Kurunjang	Melton	$610,000	$80,600	7.6
37	Cranbourne East	Casey	$755,000	$99,424	7.6
38	Cranbourne West	Casey	$740,000	$96,512	7.7
39	Greenvale	Hume	$906,500	$117,624	7.7
40	Koo Wee Rup	Cardinia	$720,000	$92,664	7.8

Showing the 40 most affordable of 329 suburbs analysed.

The pattern here is the mirror image of the least-affordable table: instead of one dominant cluster (blue-chip east/bayside), the most affordable suburbs spread across Melbourne's entire growth-corridor ring — Melton and Wyndham in the west, Whittlesea and Hume in the north, Casey and Cardinia in the south-east. What they share isn't geography so much as newness: these are largely recently-developed estates, further from the CBD, with less established infrastructure — the trade-off behind the lower price-to-income ratio. For what that trade-off looks like in overlays, transport and development pipeline for any one of them, check its Delora profile.

What the middle of the market looks like

Most of Greater Melbourne sits nowhere near either extreme. The metro median is 11.3 years — meaning a typical Melbourne suburb needs a little over eleven years of its own median household income to buy its own median house. That's the number worth anchoring to if the headline "52 years" or "5.4 years" figures feel abstract: half of Melbourne's 329 ranked suburbs sit above 11.3 years, half below.

If you're priced out of the blue-chip names in the first table, the honest reading of this data isn't "give up" — it's that the more affordable half of the metro, plus the specific suburbs in the second table, is where the price-to-income maths actually works in a buyer's favour. Every suburb's full profile — current prices, rent history, overlays and planning risk — is on its Delora page.

What this ranking can't tell you

This is a relative indicator, not a mortgage calculator. It assumes a household spends its entire annual income on the purchase, which nobody does — real affordability depends on your deposit, your actual serviceable loan amount, interest rates and how many incomes are going toward the purchase, none of which this ranking captures. Census household income is also wage-based, so it systematically understates real earning power in wealthy suburbs where investment and business income are a bigger share of the picture — treat the very top of the least-affordable table as directionally right, not literally precise. And every figure here is a suburb-level median: the actual property you're looking at could sell well above or below it. This is general information, not financial advice — talk to a mortgage broker or financial adviser about what you can actually afford, and always confirm the specific property before you commit.

Frequently asked questions

What is the least affordable suburb in Melbourne?
Toorak — its median house is worth about 52 years of the local median household income, more than double any other suburb. That figure overstates the strain slightly because census income doesn't capture investment earnings, but Toorak is comfortably Melbourne's least affordable suburb on a price-to-income basis.

What is the most affordable suburb in Melbourne?
Strathtulloh, in Melton's growth corridor, at 5.4 years of local household income for the median house — followed closely by Manor Lakes, Thornhill Park, Fraser Rise and Aintree, all also in Melbourne's outer west and north-west.

How is "years of income" calculated?
Median house price (Valuer-General Victoria) divided by the local annual median household income (ABS 2021 Census, weekly income × 52). It's a relative, visceral gauge of how stretched prices are against local earnings — not a literal savings timeline or a substitute for a proper borrowing-capacity calculation.

Why is Toorak's number so high?
Two reasons: Toorak has Melbourne's highest house prices by a wide margin, and census household income is wage-based, so it understates the true earnings of very wealthy households, who often derive significant income from investments rather than wages. The real multiple is lower than 52 — but Toorak still tops the ranking by a large margin.

What's the typical affordability level across Melbourne?
The metro median is 11.3 years of local household income for the median house — half of the 329 suburbs analysed sit above that figure, half below it.

Are the most affordable suburbs a good place to buy?
That depends on what you're optimising for. They score well on this specific price-to-income measure, but that's one factor among many — commute time, the local development pipeline, and planning risk all matter too. See where Melbourne's apartment glut is building and each suburb's own profile before deciding.

Delora provides general information, not legal or financial advice, and is not a substitute for a licensed conveyancer, solicitor or financial adviser. Public-record figures are suburb-level indicators — always confirm the specific parcel. Always obtain professional advice before signing a contract of sale.