2 weeks ago
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Mildura is more famous for oranges than auctions, but the city in Australia’s food bowl is the new epicentre of real estate spending.
The agricultural city, which also has a flourishing tourism and culinary scene, is the location where the most money was spent on houses in regional Victoria in the 12 months to last September, Cotality data shows.
Mildura property buyers have been splashing cash.Credit:
The regional suburb of Mildura had 821 house sales, for a total transaction value of $418,459,341, according to the Cotality Best of the Best 2025 report.
The second most active and lucrative market was Torquay, which had 303 sales resulting in $389,022,040 worth of deals.
Also in the top five were Ocean Grove (352 sales, $388,189,982 total value), Shepparton (755 sales, $369,172,002 total value) and Warrnambool (545 sales, $345,491,388 total value).
Mildura’s low median and multi-pronged economy, across healthcare, farming, hospitality and tourism, has been a magnet for investors and owner-occupiers alike. “It’s really been a story about affordability and opportunity driving that particularly strong growth that we’ve seen,” Cotality’s head of research Gerard Burg says.
The border city also has one of Australia’s sunniest climates. Locals like to quip that it has more hours of blue sky than the Gold Coast. “Mildura is quite an attractive place to move to,” Burg says.
Mildura attracts foodies to establishments such as Stefano’s Restaurant, which consistently wins Good Food Guide accolades. But investors’ appetites are strong, too.
Cotality’s median rental yield in Melbourne is 3.6 per cent, compared to Mildura’s 4.7 per cent. “Investors who can get into the market at a lower value are getting a higher rate of return,” Burg says.
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However, the federal government has not ruled out cutting the capital gains discount for investors, and the ongoing debate could affect confidence in markets such as Mildura. “The speculation at the minute that we could see a shift in the capital gains discounts for investors, and that sort of uncertainty might make people wary of buying,” Burg says.
Mildura is typical of the tree-change destinations that welcomed new residents during COVID, but limited stock has since sustained demand. “What we’ve seen over that period is a slowing trend in the number of houses or dwellings that have been listed for sale,” Burg says.
Average days on market in Mildura have also fallen from 30 days to about 20 days.
Mildura’s rise comes after fluctuations in previous reports. It had the fifth-highest total house transactions in regional Victoria in 2024, third in 2023, fell off the list in 2022, and was fifth in 2021.
Founder of One Agency Mildura, Mark Thornton, says when he launched his business in 2021, Mildura’s market was known for its consistency, but not large gains. That has changed. “In the last two years, we’ve seen nothing but extraordinary growth,” he says.
The median house value in Mildura has spiked 20.1 per cent over 12 months, according to Cotality.
Thornton says homes priced about $600,000 are most popular. Two years ago, he says those same properties were trading for about $150,000 less. “When I tell these home owners what their houses are worth, they are surprised.”
Town residents are using equity to upgrade to premium acreage on the outskirts, Thornton says.
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Mildura’s performance indicates proximity to a capital city (it’s roughly 400 kilometres to Adelaide and 550 kilometres to Melbourne) is not essential. “We have a diversity of industry, projected population growth and an airport,” Thornton says. “We stand on our own two feet. People drive through hundreds of kilometres of nothing and then they get to Mildura, and it is like a big, green tourism oasis.”
While Mildura’s isolation plays in its favour, Torquay and Ocean Grove are “realistically commutable” for Melbourne workers, Burg explains. With seven-figure medians, these coastal havens are attracting aspirational buyers.
Tim Carson, director of Torquay-based McCartney Real Estate, has noticed home owners in Geelong’s growth corridor suburbs of Armstrong Creek and Warralily are upsizing in Torquay. “They are selling their homes for $600,000 to $900,000, and coming to Torquay to buy from $900,000 up to $1.2 million.”
There has been a knock-on effect, as those vendors pour their gain into a higher-end Torquay property, worth up to $1.5 million. “That’s where we’ve really seen growth,” Carson says.
Overall days on market have shortened, Carson says, but that is owner-occupier driven. Other segments have been stung by the state’s land and vacancy taxes. “Most of our buyers are definitely owner-occupier,” he says. “Investors and the holiday home people have gone out of the market, even though there is a shortage of rentals here and the yield is getting better.”
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