Buyers priced out of capital city housing may find a house on the coast for less than the cost of a city apartment, according to new analysis from realestate.com.au.
The data identifies 74 coastal suburbs nationwide where the typical house value falls below $735,000, the median unit value across the combined capitals in the September realestate.com.au Home Price Report.
House prices in these suburbs start at $330,000 in Solomontown, South Australia, and go up to $732,500 in Old Beach, Tasmania.
realestate.com.au senior economist Eleanor Creagh (pictured) linked the trend to reduced borrowing capacity, saying that “as higher interest rates reduce borrowing capacity, buyers are increasingly having to make trade offs around location, dwelling type and size.”
That pressure intensified this month, when the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.85% on 3 November, its fifth increase this year and the highest level since 2008.
Being affordable has not stopped prices from rising. Most of the 74 suburbs recorded house price growth over the past year, while values fell in 11 of them.
Queensland and Victoria account for almost half of the list. Queensland had 17 suburbs, with entries including Scarness in the Wide Bay region, Emu Park in Central Queensland and Eimeo in Mackay.
Victoria also had 17 suburbs. These include Cowes on Phillip Island, as well as Lakes Entrance and Venus Bay in the Latrobe-Gippsland region.
New South Wales had only one suburb on the list. Sunshine Bay had a median house price of $730,000, following recent price falls.
The data shows a choice many buyers now face. For the same budget, they can buy a unit in the city or a house in a coastal suburb.
As Creagh put it, “More affordable regional markets remain accessible to a larger pool of buyers than many capital city alternatives.”
Median house price below $735,000, the median capital city unit price. Tap a state to filter.
Source: realestate.com.au. Median house price and change over the past 12 months. The $735,000 benchmark is the median capital city unit price from the realestate.com.au Home Price Report (September 2026). Excludes suburbs with fewer than 30 sales in the past 12 months.
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