The number of suburbs where the median house price exceeds $1 million has almost quadrupled in the past decade, with regional hotspots and beachside towns driving much of the growth.
Back in 2015, just 273 of Australia’s 15,000-plus suburbs had a median house price of $1 million or more. Fast forward to 2025, and that figure has skyrocketed to 1,073 suburbs, according to a new analysis of PropTrack data.
This rapid increase in million-dollar suburbs comes as national home values hit a record high in May 2025, with PropTrack reporting a 0.39% monthly gain – the fifth consecutive rise. Home prices are now 4.12% higher than a year ago, supported by falling interest rates and renewed buyer demand.
“It makes sense,” Mortgage Choice said. “Back then the median house price in NSW was just $550,000, and most other states had medians in the $400,000s. In Tassie and South Australia, a typical house cost $280,000 and $368,000, respectively.”
The analysis covered suburbs with at least 30 house sales in the year to May 2025 and excluded units and overall dwelling medians.
Many of the suburbs that have crossed the million-dollar mark were coastal regional areas, where prices were significantly lower 10 years ago. Nearly 80 of the newly minted million-dollar suburbs had medians of $500,000 or less in 2015 – and some were under $450,000.
“For example, in the NSW suburb of Tweed Heads West near the Queensland border, the median house price was $398,500 a decade ago. It would now set a buyer back $1.04 million to pick up a typical house – an increase of 161%,” Mortgage Choice said.
Queensland suburbs Sunrise Beach and Noosa Heads topped the list for growth. Between May 2015 and 2025, Sunrise Beach’s median rose from $580,000 to $2.01 million, while Noosa Heads jumped from $690,000 to $2.225 million.
Suburbs that grew more than 200% over the decade were all coastal towns in NSW and Queensland, reinforcing the premium buyers now place on beachside lifestyles.
In Queensland, some of the most affordable suburbs in 2015 that now have $1 million-plus medians include Hemmant and Highland Park on the Gold Coast, and Pomona and Cooroy in the Noosa region.
In Victoria, regional areas made up most of the cheapest 2015 entries to now pass $1 million. These included Bright in the north, Bittern on the Mornington Peninsula, and Manifold Heights in Geelong.
Once among the country’s priciest, Melbourne’s elite suburbs have seen a relative decline.
“Victoria’s most expensive suburb, Toorak, fell out of the country’s top 10 most expensive suburbs between 2015 and 2025, as did Deepdene in Melbourne's leafy inner-east,” the report said.
The 10 most expensive suburbs in Australia are now all in NSW, as Melbourne’s post-pandemic price softening continues.
In 2015, only three suburbs had a median above $3 million – and none exceeded $4 million. In 2025, the picture is dramatically different.
In 2025, nine of the 10 most expensive suburbs had median house prices above $5 million, and 226 suburbs had typical house prices over $2 million – more than 200 higher than in 2015.
The number of suburbs with median prices above $3 million had grown to 76, with 27 exceeding $4 million. All but one – Toorak in Melbourne – were located in New South Wales.
In Western Australia, the 2015 million-dollar suburbs were all in Perth’s premium riverside and coastal belt, such as Dalkeith, Cottesloe, and City Beach.
Western Australia has added 56 more suburbs with million-dollar medians, many of them in inland areas not traditionally viewed as premium – reflecting rapid price growth over the past five years, driven by population increases and limited housing supply.
South Australia saw its count grow from just two to 73 suburbs, while Tasmania now has only one $1 million suburb: Sandy Bay, which had a median of $640,000 in 2015.
In the ACT, the number of $1 million-plus suburbs rose from two in 2015 to 34 in 2025.
No suburbs in the Northern Territory had a median house price above $1 million.
Read the article on PropTrack or Mortgage Choice to see the complete list of high-priced suburbs.
