Some of regional Victoria’s cheapest housing markets have delivered eye-watering returns, with house prices surging by up to 97.9 per cent over the past five years.
Analysis of the most recent Domain House Price Report reveals the regional towns where the median house price sits below $500,000 but where prices have boomed from September 2021 to September 2026.
8 Woolcock Street, Warracknabeal VIC 3393
Local agent John Hadley from Wimmera Real Estate says broader economic development in the region is driving growth; the region is about a 40-minute drive north of Horsham and a hub for local agriculture.
“We’ve got mineral sands, wind turbine developments, we’ve got a hay factory that’s just started that employs a few people,” he says.
“If you can’t afford a house in Horsham, you can come to Warracknabeal and buy a house and just commute.”
The median price in Morwell was $435,000, while the median in Churchill was $460,000.
“Geographically, it’s in a good position,” Jim Demetrios from Stockdale & Leggo says.
“And I keep on saying the big thing is affordability, because when you compare our prices to other areas, they can’t buy a block of land for the sort of money that we can sell a home for.
“[Buyers are] basically your first-home buyers, while your investors are still out there. Where else can they buy real estate at those sorts of figures and get the returns that they’re getting?”
For example, a home on Junier Street in Morwell recently sold for $430,000. It features three bedrooms with a renovated bathroom on a 663-square-metre block.
“I think [the local housing market] was undervalued and the fact is that people are seeing the benefits of its local facilities,” he says.
“It does provide for everything. We’ve got Federation University, which is within seven kilometres of Morwell. We’ve got Latrobe Regional Hospital, which is an outstanding hospital. Sporting facilities are absolutely excellent.”
31 Anderson St, Warracknabeal VIC 3393
At Warracknabeal, a weatherboard home on Anderson Street with four bedrooms and sitting on a little over 1000 square metres of land sold in August for $350,000.
“If you’re sick of paying a $1 million mortgage in a suburb of Melbourne, then you can just settle up all your chips and move into the country and have a pretty good, cruisy life, beautiful weather and live mortgage-free and work from home,” Hadley says.
“Small country towns are what you make them … If you want to get out and get involved in the service groups and sporting clubs, we’ve got a great golf club, good footy oval facilities, tennis courts, two bowls clubs.
“If you want to get involved in those clubs there, you won’t find a better community.”
Other affordable centres with growing markets include Casterton, in the state’s west, where the median price rose 60 per cent in five years to $320,000.
At Stawell, another major centre in western Victoria, and at Cohuna in the state’s north, prices rose 57 per cent over the same period to around $415,000.
Peter Lenaghan Peter Lenaghan is a veteran of Australian media, having worked as a writer, broadcaster, editor and proofreader for more than 20 years. He was previously a senior regional reporter for the ABC.
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