Only 74 suburbs near an Australian beach now have a median house price below $735,000, the combined median unit price across the capital cities, according to realestate.com.au research published on 10 November 2026. New South Wales has just one suburb on the list: Sunshine Bay, where the median house price is $730,000 after a 12.8 per cent year-on-year drop.
South Australia Holds the Cheapest Beach Houses
The cheapest entries are concentrated in South Australia. Solomontown, in the Barossa – Yorke – Mid-North region, is the most affordable beach suburb in the country with a median house price of $330,000, realestate.com.au reports. Port Augusta, in SA's outback, follows at $340,000. Other SA suburbs on the list include outback towns such as Ceduna and Whyalla, and south-east locations such as Kingston SE and Kingscote.
The report's ten most affordable beach suburbs are:
- Solomontown, SA – $330,000
- Port Augusta, SA – $340,000
- Loch Sport, Victoria – $347,500
- Ceduna, SA – $362,500
- Dundee Beach, NT – $400,000
- Port Augusta West, SA – $405,000
- Smithton, Tasmania – $422,500
- Whyalla, SA – $450,000
- Cooktown, Queensland – $465,000
- George Town, Tasmania – $475,000
Five of those ten suburbs are in South Australia, two are in Tasmania, and Victoria, the Northern Territory and Queensland have one each. Every entry in the top ten is at least $260,000 below the $735,000 benchmark, by REAStats' calculation. The report's text gives Cooktown's median as $450,000, while its top-ten list shows $465,000; either figure leaves it well inside the threshold.
Victoria and Queensland Tie for the Most Suburbs
Victoria has 17 suburbs that made the cut and is the only state other than South Australia with a beach suburb below $400,000. Its cheapest is Loch Sport in the Latrobe – Gippsland region at $347,500. Latrobe – Gippsland has the most affordable beach suburbs of any region, according to the report, with further options around Geelong and the Warrnambool and South West region.
Queensland also has 17 suburbs on the list, with entries spread across the outback, Townsville, Cairns and the Mackay – Isaac – Whitsunday region. Together, Victoria and Queensland account for 34 of the 74 suburbs, or about 46% of the list. In Western Australia, most qualifying beach suburbs are in the outback, including Geraldton, while the Northern Territory's Dundee Beach sits at exactly $400,000 and Tasmania's Smithton at $422,500.
Why Sunshine Bay Is the Only NSW Entry
Sunshine Bay's $730,000 median is just $5,000 under the benchmark. The 12.8 per cent annual fall reported by realestate.com.au implies a median of roughly $837,000 a year earlier, by REAStats' calculation, which would have kept the suburb off the list.
REAStats' indicative suburb estimates show how far Sydney's best-known beach suburbs sit from that line. REAStats estimates Manly's median house price at $3.2 million, Bondi Beach's at $3.1 million and Coogee's at $2.8 million. On those figures, the cheapest of the three is about 3.8 times the $735,000 benchmark. Loch Sport's $347,500 median would need to rise roughly ninefold to reach Bondi Beach's estimated median.
These REAStats figures are estimates drawn from public market information rather than the data behind the realestate.com.au list, so they show the scale of the gap rather than a like-for-like ranking.
How the $735,000 Benchmark Compares With Each Capital
The $735,000 figure combines unit prices across all capital cities, so it sits above some capitals and below others. REAStats' own capital city estimates put the median unit price at about $800,000 in Sydney and $750,000 in Melbourne, both above the benchmark, while Brisbane and Hobart sit at about $500,000, Adelaide at $450,000, Perth at $400,000 and Darwin at $350,000.
That means the realestate.com.au comparison is most striking for buyers in Sydney and Melbourne, where a typical unit already costs more than a house in every suburb on the list. For buyers in Perth or Darwin, many of the same coastal houses would cost more than a typical local unit.
The Trade-Offs Behind the Low Prices
Realestate.com.au senior economist Eleanor Creagh said finding an affordable beach home was now a question of how much a buyer was willing to give up. She said the suburbs could suit people with employment flexibility, but some "may provide more space and land but less access to infrastructure services, other amenities, and metropolitan employment opportunities."
Ms Creagh also said some of these suburbs could overtake capital city unit prices as values fall across parts of the housing market, noting that "some regional areas have been remarkably resilient to date with relative affordability and tight stock on market, insulating them from the price falls we've seen around the country." The report adds that falling unit prices in many major cities could push some beach suburbs above the median and off the list.
For buyers weighing a coastal regional purchase against staying in a capital city, REAStats' Capital City vs Regional Property Investment comparison covers the liquidity, vacancy and resale trade-offs in more detail.
