The vastly different budgets needed to buy into Australia's most in-demand suburbs

Aussie house hunters have been super keen on buying into these hot suburbs in 2025, but values in the most popular areas for property buyers are separated by a multimillion-dollar price gulf.

New data has uncovered the most sought-after suburbs of the past year, revealing a massive difference in prices between the popular areas topping the charts this year.
While prestigious and pricey areas made the list of the most in-demand suburbs, so too did affordable suburbs towards the fringes of the capitals where buyers can find less expensive properties.
The data tracks the number of key enquiries per property listing on realestate.com.au, which is a measure used to gauge the level of buyer demand in an area.
Key enquiries include high-intent actions such as emailing an enquiry, calling the agent or downloading documents – steps serious buyers take when they’re interested in purchasing a property.
The suburb with the most enquiries per house listing was St Marys in Sydney’s west, with a typical listing there receiving 154 enquiries.
That’s almost four times the national average of 40 enquiries, indicating St Marys is extremely popular with buyers. Nearby Werrington was almost as desirable, with 149 enquiries per listing.
Both suburbs have been targeted by both first-home buyers and investors recently, and with median house prices just above $1 million, these areas are more affordable than most of Sydney.
The second-most popular Australian suburb of 2025 was Rocklea in Brisbane’s south, where the median house price of $772,500 has increased by almost 19% in the past year.
Despite strong buyer demand causing a rapid rise in values, it’s still much more affordable than most other Brisbane suburbs. 
At the other end of the spectrum, houses in Point Piper on Sydney Harbour — one of Australia’s priciest suburbs — were in high demand with the uber wealthy, typically receiving more than 150 enquiries each.
Only a handful of luxury houses come on the market in Point Piper each year, including this $39.5 million five-bedroom mansion and a stately sandstone home that sold for $23.5 million.
Other pricier suburbs that are in high demand include harbourfront Sydney suburbs Rose Bay and Wollstonecraft, where even entry-level properties start at about $3 million and high-end homes are worth many times that figure.
The data shows buyers were also eagerly enquiring about spacious semi-rural properties in Windsor Downs in the northwest and Holgate on the Central Coast, where a $2 to $3 million budget can afford a big house and plenty of land.
While Sydney dominated the top 10 list of the most in-demand suburbs, affordable pockets were also sought-after in other cities.
The Melbourne suburbs that had the most buyers interested were located in the city’s more-affordable north, including Coolaroo, Dallas and Campbellfield – areas in favour with both interstate investors and local first-home buyers, where houses typically sell for between $600,000 and $800,000.
REA Group senior economist Eleanor Creagh said many high-demand suburbs across western Sydney and Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs provided a much more affordable entry point to the property market than those closer to the city.
“Buyers are trading off longer commutes for more space and affordability, and these areas often also benefit from ongoing infrastructure investment,” she said.
Ms Creagh said strong demand could place upward pressure on prices as more buyers compete over the properties that come to market.