Australia’s cheapest suburbs now include towns where houses sell for less than the price of a new car – with one Broken Hill property changing hands for just $33,000 – but PropTrack notes there are “major trade-offs” in many of these ultra‑cheap areas, including remoteness and exposure to mining cycles.
PropTrack data has identified suburbs across the country where median house or unit values sit at $300,000 or less, underscoring how affordable some markets outside the capital cities remain.
A separate PropTrack analysis of 2025 price growth shows the strongest‑performing suburbs were overwhelmingly at the affordable end of the market, as buyers chased lower entry prices, investor returns and new government support schemes.
The cheapest suburb in Australia is Kambalda West, around 60km south of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s goldfields region, with a median house value of $226,000. It forms one half of Kambalda, a mining town focused on nickel and gold production, where the shift to fly-in fly-out work has contributed to population decline and softer housing demand.
Broken Hill in western NSW ranks next, with a median house value of $266,000 – but recent sales show just how far individual prices can sit below that median. The cheapest property to sell in the past year was a three-bedroom house which sold for just $33,000 in June, while another two-bedroom Broken Hill house traded for $49,000 in November. Most of the cheapest properties to sell in Broken Hill have required extensive maintenance or modernisation.
Real estate agent Mitchell Halpin of Broken Hill First National said buyers who purchased the cheapest properties in town usually intended to demolish the house and rebuild on the block.
“The way people look at it is they’ll pay land value and factor into their budget what it costs to clear the house away,” Halpin told PropTrack. “Some people do save them and renovate, but nine times out of 10 they’re in disrepair.”
In Queensland, the towns of Dysart ($274,000), Moura ($290,000) and Blackwater ($316,000) are some of the cheapest in the state for houses. Property prices are tied to the cyclical coal industry, as well as agriculture, with their remoteness playing a part in affordability.
REA Group senior economist Anne Flaherty (pictured) said mining towns may often have very high rental yields as a result of rising demand for rental properties when production is ramping up, but property prices don’t always follow suit.
“When there's a lot of need for people to live near the mining site, that drives up rents,” Flaherty said. “But the value of the property does not necessarily increase at the same speed because there’s still that risk that in several-years-time, demand could decrease or the mining project winds down.”
She said prices could be volatile in single-industry towns depending on the stage of the mining investment cycle, which could deter investors seeking more stable returns.
Even within the capitals, PropTrack found suburbs where houses can still be bought for under $500,000, although most are on the fringe or in smaller markets.
Hobart stands out, with Gagebrook in the city’s north the most affordable at $449,000, and nearby Herdsmans Cove ($452,000) and Bridgewater ($499,000) also offering lower price points.
Several inner Melbourne suburbs with high concentrations of smaller apartments – including Caulfield East, Travancore and Carlton – present relatively affordable options for unit buyers, while Brisbane’s cheapest house suburbs, Russell Island ($472,000) and Macleay Island ($524,000), sit offshore and are accessed by ferry.
Flaherty said prices in affordable markets were likely to rise in the year ahead as the federal government’s expanded 5% deposit scheme drives more first-home buyers towards the lower end of the market.
“This policy is expected to drive up demand from first-home buyers, particularly at the more affordable end of the market,” she said.
For mortgage brokers, that combination of low entry prices, potential for higher yields, and policy-driven demand creates opportunity – but in locations where volatility, employment concentration and property condition must be front and centre in advice and credit assessment.
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