Nearly one in three homes in Melbourne are selling below asking price, with median sold prices tracking almost $24,000 under initial listings
Melbourne is outpacing other Australian cities in the volume of properties sold at reduced prices, with new analysis from property data firm Spachus showing 29% of dwellings listed in the Victorian capital have had their asking price cut — a share that continues to rise.
Over the past three months, the median sold price for Melbourne properties came in $23,750 below the original listing price, Spachus data shows.
By dwelling type, 27.5% of houses were discounted by an average of 14%, 28.5% of apartments sold at 12.5% below asking, and just over a quarter of townhomes were reduced by nearly 20%.
"(There are) a lot of reductions around units in Melbourne, that's probably the most," said Phil Seymour, founder of Spachus. "The townhomes closest to the city are competitive but that's probably the only thing we noticed. Everything else is going down."
🗺️ A live view of properties currently listed across #Melbourne.
— Spachus Aus (@SpachusAus) July 26, 2026
29% of listings have already been reduced from their original asking price — and that percentage continues to climb each day. pic.twitter.com/MvzH8LxCQy
Other markets have recorded larger median dollar discounts — Sydney (-$70,000), the Central Coast (-$75,000), Wollongong (-$50,000), Geelong (-$45,500) and the Sunshine Coast (-$40,000) — but Seymour said Melbourne's distinction lies in the breadth of properties trading below their advertised price.
"I think Melbourne probably started all the downward trend of property," he said. "It's been going down longer than people think. I think really it started to go down from the start of this year. But last year it was definitely showing signs of going down too."
Several factors have weighed on the Melbourne market, including net outflows of Victorian residents following the Covid-19 pandemic, state tax changes on secondary dwellings, and increased levies on short-stay accommodation. Those headwinds were compounded by interest rate rises in 2026 and May Budget measures that wound back capital gains tax discounts and negative gearing settings.
Seymour, who flagged signs of softening in several cities as early as late 2025, said the budget accelerated a trend that was already under way. "What contributes to this downturn is probably the Budget night changes, which just pushed it along a bit, but it was going that way anyway," he said.
"Melbourne has always been quite flat, but Sydney started to turn I'd say towards the end of last year… I think it naturally just hit a peak where the market wasn't being propped up by interstate buyers."
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