Prices have jumped rapidly in many affordable suburbs this year, but the list of suburbs with the strongest price growth is defined by one city’s remarkable comeback.
Most of the Australian suburbs where house prices grew quickest this year were at the affordable end of the market, with all but one of the top 10 suburbs having a median house price below $1 million.
But six out of the top 10 suburbs were concentrated in one capital city that’s risen through the ranks to produce outsized returns for investors after years of underperformance.
Darwin dominated this year’s list of suburbs where house prices rose fastest – a significant turnaround after the city languished for years towards the bottom of the house price growth table.
Top 10 suburbs where house prices rose fastest in 2025
| Suburb | State | Median value (AVM) | 12-month growth | |
| 1 | Gray | NT | $582,000 | 46% |
| 2 | Moulden | NT | $571,000 | 45% |
| 3 | Rangeway | WA | $382,000 | 42% |
| 4 | Woodroffe | NT | $618,000 | 41% |
| 5 | Spalding | WA | $461,000 | 39% |
| 6 | Port Pirie West | SA | $287,000 | 38% |
| 7 | Driver | NT | $607,000 | 38% |
| 8 | Bakewell | NT | $660,000 | 35% |
| 9 | Chidlow | WA | $1,000,000 | 34% |
| 10 | Karama | NT | $611,000 | 33% |
The list of fastest-growing suburbs was topped by Gray, a suburb where values surged by an impressive 46% in just 12 months.
The affordable suburb, with a median house price of $582,000, is located in Darwin’s Palmerston region, which has been targeted by investors seeking cheap properties with high rental returns.
The data used PropTrack’s automated valuation model (AVM) to determine a suburb’s median house or unit value.
Gray in Darwin topped the list of Australian suburbs with the fastest price growth in 2025. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Other suburbs in the Palmerston region, including Moulden, Woodroffe, Driver and Bakewell, also made the top 10 list, with price growth ranging from 34-45%.
Properties in the Palmerston region have among the highest gross rental yields in the country, with low purchase prices and high weekly rents proving an attractive prospect for many investors.
Darwin’s property market has been a standout in 2025, with values surpassing the previous peak reached in early 2022 and rising to new highs amid a shortage of homes on the market.
Investor boom drives price growth
REA Group senior economist Anne Flaherty said the surge in buyer demand in Darwin was driven by both investors and first-home buyers.
“Darwin has emerged as an investor hot spot over the past year, with the NT seeing double the number of new loan commitments to investors over the 12 months ending September, compared to the previous 12-month period,” she said.
“Investors aren’t the only buyers active in Darwin, with new loans to first-home buyers up 46% in the NT, comparing the September quarters of 2025 and 2024. This was the strongest growth in loans to first-home buyers seen over the past year.”
![Darwin house surrounded by greenery](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 800 450"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Increased investor demand in Darwin has resulted in prices surging in a number of affordable suburbs, such as Moulden. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Darwin real estate agent and Monsoon Real Estate principal Joshua Pucci said the rapid price growth in some of Darwin’s cheapest suburbs had created challenging conditions for first-home buyers.
“Investors were snapping up properties in those suburbs really cheap, in the $400,000 range,” he said. “Then the market started rising and rose pretty quick.
“Local buyers are now looking in those suburbs with a $600,000 loan using the 5% deposit scheme.
“For first-home buyers, those are the only real suburbs they can get into.”
Mr Pucci said ongoing infrastructure and mining projects in the Northern Territory meant there was a strong outlook for Darwin’s property market in the year ahead.
“It’s been a sleeping giant,” he said. “I think it’s still got plenty of growth.”
Cheap houses in Rangeway in Geraldton are getting spruced up and flipped by investors, helping lift home values. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Other suburbs that made the top 10 list included Rangeway, a suburb of Geraldton in Western Australia where affordable properties are regularly flipped by investors seeking a quick profit, as well as Spalding in the city’s north.
House prices also rose rapidly this year in Port Pirie West in South Australia, as well as Chidlow, a small town in the Perth Hills.
North Plympton in Adelaide’s southwest had the year’s fastest unit price growth, with values rising 36% in 12 months.
Other top performers in the unit market include inner Perth suburbs Wembley, Osborne Park, Maylands and Mount Lawley, as well as suburbs in Townsville and Rockhampton.
Top 10 suburbs where unit prices rose fastest in 2025
| Suburb | State | Median value (AVM) | 12-month growth | |
| 1 | North Plympton | SA | $775,000 | 36% |
| 2 | Bakewell | NT | $416,000 | 34% |
| 3 | Frenchville | QLD | $438,000 | 34% |
| 4 | Wembley | WA | $535,000 | 34% |
| 5 | Osborne Park | WA | $618,000 | 33% |
| 6 | Maylands | WA | $643,000 | 32% |
| 7 | Mount Lawley | WA | $682,000 | 32% |
| 8 | Aitkenvale | QLD | $395,000 | 32% |
| 9 | Norman Gardens | QLD | $445,000 | 32% |
| 10 | Rosslea | QLD | $376,000 | 32% |
These cities have had some of the strongest house price growth in the past few years, and now that strong demand has spilled over into the unit market, with some buyers have been shifting focus to more affordable properties.
“Overall, the NT, WA, and Queensland dominate when it comes to best performing suburbs,” Ms Flaherty said.
“In particular, more affordable suburbs have been the stand outs, with affordability constraints pricing a growing number of buyers out of many regions.”
Buyers flock to affordable pockets in big cities
Sydney’s top suburbs for house price growth were mostly found in the city’s more-affordable west, in particular in the Blacktown and Fairfield local government areas.
Eastern Creek and Tregear had the fastest house price growth at 22%, followed by Bonnyrigg Heights, Wakeley and Whalan (up 21%).
The median house value in Lethbridge Park in Sydney’s west has climbed by 20% in the past year. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Unit price growth followed a similar pattern, with Blacktown suburbs such as Ropes Crossing (up 23%) and Lethbridge Park (up 20%) ranked highly.
But there was also strong growth recorded in southern and eastern suburbs such as Sylvania (up 26%), Edgecliff (up 22%) and Engadine (up 19%).
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Melbourne’s top suburbs for house price growth were concentrated in two key parts of the city.
In the north, the fastest growing suburbs included Coolaroo (up 17%), Dallas (up 16%), Meadow Heights and Campbellfield (both up 15%).
In the south, Frankston North (up 18%) Carrum Downs (up 15%) had the most rapid gains.
Real estate agent Mark Burke of OBrien Real Estate Frankston said both first and second-home buyers were competing with investors for affordable homes in Frankston North.
“A lot of them are mum and dad investors,” he said. “They’re coming from all over Australia, and now we’ve got some of the national buyer’s agencies buying here too.”
Frankston North was one of Melbourne’s top suburbs for price growth, with prices rising as a result of strong competition for affordable properties. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
It was a similar situation in Brisbane, with many of the top suburbs for house price growth found in the more-affordable Ipswich region to the city’s west, including One Mile (up 28%), Wacol (up 28%) and Dinmore (up 27%).
But it was southern suburbs with spacious, leafy properties such as Buccan (up 31%) and Logan Village (up 29%) that topped the list.
Ms Flaherty said expanded first-home buyer incentives had helped support demand for less-expensive properties.
“The federal government’s Home Guarantee Scheme, which enables all first-home buyers to purchase on as little as a 5% deposit within a price threshold, is expected to add further fuel to price growth in the more affordable market segments,” she said.
