The affordable suburbs with access to parks, schools and transport
The PRD Smart Moves report for the first half of 2025 found that there were just 14 affordable and livable suburbs to buy a house in Sydney, 26 in Brisbane and 32 in Melbourne.
The report defined affordable as suburbs that had a median price below the citywide median, and livable as suburbs which had access to medical facilities, schools, shops, green space, transport, low crime rates and a good number of homes available to purchase.
Sydney's median price was $1,474,343 for houses and $854,968 for units. In Melbourne, houses were $934,500 and units $610,327. Brisbane's house median was $937,500 and units were $690,000.
PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said buyers could find plenty of properties beneath median prices across their cities, so applying livability criteria helped to identify quality homes.
'There's still a lot of suburbs available for houses and units in all capital cities. When you start to factor in livability … that's what really starts to shrink it,' she said.
'When people actually say they want an affordable or cheap suburb, that's a first layer response, and when you dig deeper into their wants and needs, the livability stuff differs.'
Unit buyers had more choice. In Sydney, 39 suburbs were affordable and livable, 40 in Melbourne and 25 in Brisbane.
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