First published 26 Oct 2026, 9:48am
From abandoned mining towns to empty inner city apartments, Australia’s ghost towns are no longer confined to the regional outback locations, with more than 136,000 homes across the country that sit inactive, new research reveals.
Thousands of inactive homes are scattered across capital cities, coastal holiday hotspots to mining regions.
New analysis from Ray White Group Economist Atom Go Tian shows 136,278 from Australia’s 10 million dwellings were classified as inactive, representing 1.3 per cent of the nation’s housing stock.
The largest capital cities, Sydney and Melbourne, have the highest counts of inactive homes, with around one in three coming from the two cities.
The findings highlight a modern form of ghost town, where empty homes can be found not only in remote communities left behind by mining booms, but also in densely populated urban areas and sought-after holiday destinations.
MORE: AI fraud targets loans after RBA rates blitz
Addresses active in the five years prior to 30 June 2021 but no longer active on 30 June 2021. Source: ABS
An abandoned home next to Barrow Creek: the research found Regional NT has the highest proportion of abandoned homes. Picture: Gera Kazakov
The research uses the ABS data for inactive homes, the equivalent of abandoned homes, that have been unoccupied for five years. It found Regional Northern Territory has the highest proportion of abandoned homes at 4.5 per cent, followed by Western Australia at 3.2 per cent.
Among areas with at least 1,000 dwellings, Esperance Surrounds in WA recorded the highest inactive dwelling rate at 11.4 per cent.
Mr Go Tian said abandoned areas fell into three categories: holiday homes, student markets and dense unit markets.
“These suburbs which on the surface looked very busy, but actually are like hiding a lot of empty homes,” he said.
“That surprised me first about the list around where the most abandoned homes are.
“The other way to look at it is abandoned as a per cent of total dwellings and in this case, your usual ghost towns, mining towns, and industry areas do show up.”
Mr Go Tian pointed to Silverton, now famous as a film location and tourist destination, as the poster child of Australia’s outback ghost towns.
But many other areas across the country are similar, created and abandoned from gold rushes, railway shifts or mining closures.
Areas with the highest share of inactive dwellings
A high percentage of abandoned homes appeared across many regional Australian areas along with inner city locations
Esperance Surrounds in regional WA, includes Condingup, Salmon Gums and Grass Patch, had the highest rate at 11.4 per cent.
Three other areas were also tied to mining, such as Alligator in regional NT, which includes Jabiru, built in 1982 for the Ranger uranium mine that closed in January 2021, Newman in regional WA, an iron ore town where BHP owns most of the housing; and Broadsound – Nebo in regional Queensland, coal country.
Mukinbudin and Gnowangerup are wheatbelt. Derby–West Kimberley is remote, with a large share of social housing.
“About 25 to 30 per cent of Australia’s population lives in regional areas, but 45 per cent of all inactive homes are actually in regional Australia,” Mr Go Tian said.
“So, there’s a lot more homes that are not lived in regional Australia versus your major cities, which again does make sense.”
The research also found three outliers from Lorne–Anglesea in regional Victoria, Civic in Canberra and Darwin City.
MORE: Tenant skips meals after landlord’s ‘absurd’ demand
Areas with the most inactive dwellings
Inside a Hawthorn home that had previously been unoccupied for 32 years and sold for more than $1.5m at auction. Picture: Alex Coppel.
Mr Go Tian said these areas aren’t the industry ghost towns of Australian imagination but modern ghost homes, holiday houses left unused for long stretches, and dense apartment markets, likely including investment properties waiting on tenants.
“As Australians, we have this idea of what a spooky suburb is and they aren’t your inner city suburbs – but it really uncovered another story about where abandoned homes are,” he said.
Seven of the top 10 are in Victoria, falling into two groups of coastal sea-change and holiday areas (such as Point Nepean and Phillip Island), and dense inner-city markets (such as Melbourne CBD, Docklands, Southbank and Carlton).
Adelaide had the least number of ghost homes.
“It is likely because the unit markets in Adelaide itself are not as developed as in your Sydney’s and Melbourne’s,” Mr Go Tian said.
“So within major cities, what we are seeing is that the highest number of ghost homes are actually in unit markets, so probably like high volume, buildings that are left empty and so these buildings don’t exist in Adelaide, as much as in Sydney, Melbourne.”
MORE: Macca’s confirms massive change to Aussie offering
Help us improve your reading experience
Got a minute? Your feedback will help us build a better experience for you.
