Melbourne inner east ยท VIC 3103
Buyers agent in Balwyn
The most expensive suburb on this list and the lowest yield in Australia's terms, let alone Melbourne's.
Figures below are July 2026, suburb level, all bedroom counts. Full Boroondara council report.
The Balwyn numbers
Houses
$2,740,314
Typical price
$904
Weekly rent
1.72%
Gross yield
+1.5%
Growth a year, 10yr
-2.4%
Growth, last 12mth
196
Sales a year
Units
$1,264,289
Typical price
$636
Weekly rent
2.62%
Gross yield
+3.4%
Growth a year, 10yr
+3.6%
Growth, last 12mth
158
Sales a year
Vacancy rate 1.90% across roughly 6,702 dwellings. HtAG Analytics, suburb level, all bedroom counts. Typical price is a modelled estimate, not a median of recent sales.
The honest read
What I'd tell you over a coffee
A typical Balwyn house is $2.74m and rents for about $904 a week. That's a gross yield of 1.72%. You could put the same money in a term deposit and do better on income, which is obviously not the point, but it tells you how much of the price here is not about the rent.
Ten year growth is 1.5% a year. The last three years are negative at -2.2%.
The Balwyn High School zone is the engine of this market and everyone knows it. That's a real and durable demand driver. It's also fully priced in, and has been for years.
The units are the interesting part. 3.4% a year over the decade against 1.5% for houses, and up 3.6% in the last twelve months while the houses went backwards. Same school zone, a fraction of the entry price.
Who Balwyn suits
Families buying into the school zone who have decided that's worth the money. It usually is, to them. Just don't confuse it with an investment thesis.
What I'd watch
A 1.72% yield means the holding cost gap is enormous, and you're relying entirely on capital growth that has averaged 1.5% for a decade.
How I work
- Flat $20,000 fee, whatever you buy and wherever it is
- No commissions from agents, developers or builders
- I'll tell you when a suburb doesn't stack up, including this one
Fair questions
Buying in Balwyn, answered
Is Balwyn worth the premium?
If you want your kids in the Balwyn High zone, that's a family decision and the numbers don't really speak to it. As an investment, a 1.72% yield and 1.5% ten year growth at a $2.74m entry price is a hard case to make. The units at $1.26m have done better on both counts.
Balwyn houses or units?
On the last decade, units. 3.4% a year against 1.5%, on a 2.62% yield against 1.72%, at less than half the entry price. That's an unusual result and it's worth understanding why before acting on it.
Other Melbourne suburbs
Same treatment, same data, different answer in every one of them.