Once Australia's Second Priciest City, Melbourne Has Become More Affordable

I recently returned to Melbourne after being away for 5 years. They've been building a lot, particularly in the Western suburbs, and in satellite towns. Also there are a lot more people working remote / hybrid and living farther out in the country. A house in a smaller city like Bendigo is $400+ a week. But I expect this has been driving prices in Melbourne down -- but I'd hardly call it 'affordable' at ~$500 a week for a small house.

“the Victorian government introduced extra land tax for investors, amounting to about $1,300 a year for a property worth $650,000. A levy on platforms such as Airbnb and expanded taxes on vacant properties and land came soon after.”

Along with strong and consistent new construction are cited as the drivers behind this but the catalyst has been remote work and the COVID lockdowns.

Victoria’s lockdowns were particularly onerous and many Melbournites realised they could move to south east QLD and pocket the potentially massive difference between the QLD and VIC properties, while still earning capital city $$$ and having better weather.

Melbourne will surge again eventually as their government takes a long view on infrastructure while QLD is adversarial to public utilities.

Just left from a month work there, and what I heard is that everybody is moving from Melbourne to Mildura, because more affordable, more work, and less needles in the parks and beaches.

"more affordable" but still very expensive.