Melbourne east · VIC 3130

Buyers agent in Blackburn

The lowest yield on this entire list. About $695 a week on a $1.78m house.

Figures below are August 2026, suburb level, all bedroom counts. Full Whitehorse council report.

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The Blackburn numbers

Houses

$1,777,542

Typical price

$695

Weekly rent

2.03%

Gross yield

+2.3%

Growth a year, 10yr

+0.6%

Growth, last 12mth

181

Sales a year

Units

$708,385

Typical price

$595

Weekly rent

4.37%

Gross yield

+1.2%

Growth a year, 10yr

+0.6%

Growth, last 12mth

209

Sales a year

Vacancy rate 1.47% across roughly 7,613 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

Blackburn's gross yield is 2.03%. That is the lowest of any suburb on this page, and it is the number that decides whether this is an investment or not.

About $695 a week against a typical house price of $1,777,542. Whatever your loan looks like, that rent is not covering much of it.

The growth has not made up for it. 2.25% a year over ten years, and effectively nothing over five at minus 0.03%.

Rent has actually grown well at 4.48% a year over the decade, so the yield problem is about the price rather than the rent being weak.

The units are a completely different market. $708,385 on a 4.37% yield, 209 sales a year against 181 for houses, and growth of 1.16% a year. Yield without capital, again.

Vacancy is 1.47% across about 7,613 dwellings. Healthy rental demand, driven by the schools and the train line.

Who Blackburn suits

Families buying for Blackburn High and the lake, holding for a long time, and not relying on the property to pay for itself. It is a leafy, well served suburb and none of that is in dispute.

What I'd watch

The gap between what it costs and what it earns. A 2.03% yield means almost the entire return has to come from capital growth, and growth here has been minus 0.03% a year for five years. That is a lot of faith to carry.

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

How the process runs

Fair questions

Buying in Blackburn, answered

Why is the yield so low?

Because the price is high relative to what the market will pay in rent. $1,777,542 buying about $695 a week. Blackburn is a family owner occupier suburb, and those tend to price on what buyers will pay to live somewhere rather than what a tenant will pay to rent it.

Is Blackburn a good long term hold?

As a home, plenty of people would say yes and I would not argue. As an investment, 2.25% a year over ten years on a 2.03% yield is a hard case to make when Craigieburn did 7.35% and Hallam did 5.55% over the same decade.

What about the apartments?

$708,385 on a 4.37% yield, more than double the house yield. Growth has been 1.16% a year, so it is a cash flow proposition rather than a growth one. Go in knowing which of the two you are buying.

Other Melbourne suburbs

Same treatment, same data, different answer in every one of them.

Thinking seriously about Blackburn? Read the full Whitehorse council report before you look at a single listing.

Read the council report Book my free call