Melbourne inner east ยท VIC 3123

Buyers agent in Hawthorn East

Down 5.24% in twelve months, and the decade behind that is a flat line.

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

Book a free call Run the Hawthorn East snapshot

The Hawthorn East numbers

Houses

$2,273,138

Typical price

$1,080

Weekly rent

2.47%

Gross yield

+0.1%

Growth a year, 10yr

-5.2%

Growth, last 12mth

174

Sales a year

Units

$743,951

Typical price

$726

Weekly rent

5.07%

Gross yield

-0.9%

Growth a year, 10yr

-3.1%

Growth, last 12mth

396

Sales a year

Vacancy rate 2.02% across roughly 8,958 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

Hawthorn East houses fell 5.24% in the last twelve months. Over three years, minus 4.78% a year. Over five, minus 2.42%.

The ten year number is plus 0.11% a year, which is a flat line with a rounding error on it.

A typical house is $2,273,138 on a 2.47% yield. About $1,080 a week against two and a quarter million dollars.

Next door, Hawthorn proper has done minus 0.48% a year over the decade. So this is not a Hawthorn East problem, it is a Boroondara problem, and the whole inner east has been carrying it.

The units are $743,951 on a 5.07% yield, which is high, with minus 0.89% a year growth over ten years. 396 unit sales a year against 174 house sales.

Vacancy is 2.02% and rent has grown 4.44% a year over the decade, so the rental market has been the functioning half of this suburb.

Who Hawthorn East suits

Families who want Boroondara schools and are buying a home. That demand is real, and it is why the rent has grown 4.44% a year while the price has not moved.

What I'd watch

The five year trend, because it is not a blip. Minus 2.42% a year compounding on a $2.27m asset is roughly $55,000 a year going backwards, and a 2.47% yield does not come close to covering it.

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 Hawthorn East, answered

Hawthorn or Hawthorn East?

Both have been flat to negative for a decade. Hawthorn East is plus 0.11% a year, Hawthorn is minus 0.48%. Neither is an investment case and I would say the same thing about both.

Why has the inner east gone backwards?

Prices ran a long way before 2016, and rates, tax changes and a shift in what buyers want at the top end have all landed since. What I can tell you for certain is what the data shows, and it shows a decade of nothing across the whole of Boroondara.

Is the 5.07% unit yield worth it?

It is the highest yield in the inner east on this list. It is also sitting on minus 0.89% a year of capital over ten years. That is a cash flow purchase and it should be a deliberate one.

Other Melbourne suburbs

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

Thinking seriously about Hawthorn East? Read the full Boroondara council report before you look at a single listing.

Read the council report Book my free call
Book my free call