▶ Watch the full video on YouTube: 17% in Playford, while Australia fell 0.7%

The latest national numbers hide a much sharper truth: some markets are still rising fast, while others are slipping. In Adelaide’s north, Playford jumped 17% in the June quarter while the country fell 0.7% in July — proof that property markets do not move as one.

For investors, that matters. The real job is not reading the national average; it is separating the postcodes that have momentum from the ones that only look cheap.

The downturn has a postcode

The biggest headline number in the latest update was the -0.7% National Index fall in July, the largest monthly drop since December 2022.

But that number tells you almost nothing about what is happening on the ground.

In the June quarter, just 10 regions across the country posted gains. According to Domain’s chief residential economist Nicola Powell, they fall into two clear groups:

  • prestige lifestyle markets in Sydney
  • affordable, value-driven markets

That split matters because those markets are not competing with each other. They are not even the same buyer profile.

The two markets inside the same national average

The top-10 list shows just how wide the gap is between market types.

On one end, Manly units rose $200,000 in a quarter to a $2 million median.

On the other, there was Playford in Adelaide’s north, where houses moved from $530,000 in March to $620,000 in June — a 17% quarterly lift and about $90,000 added to the median.

Other names in that June-quarter growth list included:

  • Caboolture units up 12.8% to $682,000
  • Albany, WA up 9% to $820,000

These are not the same market.

The prestige buyer is typically moving suburb to suburb on equity. The value buyer is often moving out of renting on a deposit and serviceability. One national average sits on top of both and describes neither properly.

Why Melbourne’s absence matters

One of the more revealing numbers in the update was zero — that is how many Melbourne regions made the national top 10 for price growth.

Melbourne has now posted back-to-back quarterly falls, and Nicola Powell described the market as fragile.

That is why “cheap” and “good value” are not the same thing.

  • Cheap means the price came down
  • Value means the rent, vacancy and supply still support the asset

That distinction is the whole game for investors. If you only chase the lowest price, you can still buy the wrong asset.

Two Queensland suburbs, two different stories

The transcript then drilled into two suburbs in the affordable, value-driven band — both in Queensland — to show why postcode-level analysis matters.

Serena, 35 kilometres south of Mackay

Serena ranked in the 99th percentile on R Score and was seventh in the country.

Key numbers:

  • quarterly average sale moved from $489,000 two years ago to $655,000 in the June quarter
  • up 34% over that period
  • the last two quarters softened from $695,000 in March to $655,000 in June
  • yield signal of 6.12%
  • six new dwellings in six months

The honest read: this is a strong but genuinely regional market. The yield is compensation for distance, not a free lunch.

Avenal Heights, 4 kilometres from Bundaberg CBD

Avenal Heights ranked in the 97th percentile and 14th nationally.

Key numbers:

  • vacancy signal of 0.54%
  • yield of 5.72%
  • four new dwellings in six months
  • year to June averaged about $679,000 versus about $580,000 the year before
  • roughly 17% growth
  • median household income of $973 a week

That income figure matters because it puts a ceiling on how far rents can run before affordability becomes a constraint.

The street is where the real decision happens

The transcript also made an important point that many investors miss: inside a postcode, the numbers can change street by street.

Four street-level questions matter most:

  1. Sale price by street — the suburb median hides the spread
  2. Rental yield by street — the best cash flow is rarely where the highest prices are
  3. Owner-occupier concentration — these streets often behave differently when markets soften
  4. Social housing concentration — this affects tenant pool, resale depth and comparable sales

That is why buying the postcode instead of the street can cost you cash flow every week you own the property.

The Shepparton lesson: one name, several markets

A question came in about Shepparton, and the answer was a useful one.

Ripehouse Advisory does not score Shepparton as one asset, because it is not one asset.

Shepparton, Mooroopna and Kialla are different markets with different tenant pools. Publicly, medians sit somewhere in the low to mid $400,000s with yields broadly in the 4.5% to 5% range, but those are approximate figures.

That is the same lesson as everywhere else in this update: averaging separate markets together gives you a number that describes none of them properly.

The Ripehouse Advisory take

The national market is still full of noise, but the opportunity is in the detail. If you want to invest well, stop asking what Australia is doing and start asking what your suburb, street and buyer cohort are doing.

That is exactly why professional research matters: it helps you separate cheap from true value, and it helps you avoid buying the wrong postcode for the right reason.

Download our no-cost Top Five Markets Report 2026 → https://ripe.house/brief-postcode

General information only, not financial advice.