Why Melbourne’s Prestige Property Market is One of The Best Buying Opportunities Right Now
When a deceased estate in Toorak commands $45 million and attracts international interest, the instinct is to read it as a sign of strength. A market firing. Confidence on display. The more interesting read is the opposite.
That sale, one of Melbourne’s largest residential transactions so far in 2026, happened after a six-month campaign. A motivated executor. A long run on the market. And almost certainly, a price that reflected that reality rather than a vendor’s wish list. That is not a cautionary tale. For a prepared buyer with the right representation, it is exactly the kind of transaction that rewards decisiveness. Knight Frank’s 2026 Wealth Report tracks buying power across 23 major global cities, measuring how much luxury residential real estate US$1 million can purchase at the top end of each market. Of those 23 cities, 21 have moved against buyers since 2020. Buying power has fallen. Supply of quality assets at the super-prime level has tightened relative to demand, and prices have moved accordingly.
Melbourne is one of two exceptions. The other is London. In Melbourne today, US$1 million (roughly A$1.5 million) purchases approximately 82.6 square metres of luxury residential real estate. In 2020, the same money bought 79.4 square metres. That is a 4 per cent improvement in buying power, quietly accumulating while most of the country moved the other way.
Brisbane’s top end is down 5 per cent over the same period. Perth has dropped 11 per cent. The Gold Coast is down 14 per cent. The gap between Melbourne and the rest of Australia at the prestige level is wider today than it has been in years.
Why Melbourne is under-priced for what it offers
The buying power improvement does not tell the whole story. Melbourne competes on the world stage in ways that its price point does not currently reflect. Cohen Handler Managing Director (VIC), Nicole Jacobs frames it in global terms: Melbourne offers the liveability, infrastructure and cultural depth of a genuinely international city, at a price that Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo buyers find almost inexplicable. For those comparing markets across the Asia-Pacific, Melbourne’s prestige tier looks substantially cheaper than its amenity warrants.
The local comparison is equally stark. Sydney’s top end has outpaced Melbourne’s for the better part of a decade. That gap, once attributable to Sydney’s harbour premium and stronger corporate demand, has widened to a point where buyers with genuine optionality are increasingly redirecting capital south. A comparable prestige home in Toorak or South Yarra, relative to Point Piper or Bellevue Hill, can represent a meaningful discount with limited sacrifice on quality of property or precinct.
The opportunity is specific, and that matters
Not every prestige listing in Melbourne is a buying opportunity. Vendors with no urgency and long time horizons will hold for their price. That is rational and they often get it. The opportunity sits elsewhere. It sits in the categories Jacobs identifies: deceased estates, settlement-driven sales, properties that have been on the market for five or six months without result, vendors who have moved interstate or overseas and are carrying holding costs with no occupant. “We are seeing when vendors are motivated, there’s been a softening,” Jacobs said. “So a property on market at $20 million could now sell for $17 million.”A $3 million gap on a $20 million home is 15 per cent. At that scale, the difference between reading a motivated vendor correctly and missing the signal entirely is material beyond description. It is the difference a skilled buyer’s advocate is paid to identify, before the property becomes public knowledge, before competing buyers enter, and before the window closes.
Off-market is where the real game is played
Listings found on property websites are the surface. At the prestige end of Melbourne’s market, a significant proportion of genuine transactions never reach Domain or Realestate.com. They move through relationships, between agents who know a vendor’s situation, and advocates who know exactly what their buyer is looking for. This is one of the key advantages of engaging a buyers advocate. An advocate working the Toorak, South Yarra, Armadale and Hawthorn corridors every week knows which vendors have been quietly testing the market, which listings are about to come on, and which campaigns are softening to the point where the timing is right. The public gets the listing. The buyer’s advocate gets the call before it’s published online.
Acting in a window versus waiting for certainty
The consistent pattern in every property cycle is that the most favourable buying conditions and the greatest buyer confidence arrive at completely different times. Conditions are best when sentiment is soft. Confidence peaks when prices have already moved. History rewards the buyers who act when the data and the conditions align, not when the headlines confirm what everyone can already see. Melbourne’s prestige market is not distressed. It is simply offering better value than it has in years, and better value than almost any comparable city in the world. That combination is uncommon. It will not persist indefinitely. “Sophisticated buyers that are seeing the opportunity and acting will be rewarded,” Jacobs said. “And that’s what history tells us.” If you are considering a prestige property purchase in Melbourne, the current conditions warrant serious attention.
Cohen Handler operates exclusively on the buy side. No listings, no vendor relationships, no conflict of interest. Our only measure of success is the outcome we secure for you.
FAQ
Yes. Melbourne is one of only two cities globally, alongside London, where luxury property buying power has increased since 2020, according to Knight Frank’s 2026 Wealth Report. Buyers can purchase approximately 4 per cent more luxury real estate in Melbourne today than they could five years ago, while comparable cities including Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast have all moved against buyers over the same period. Combined with motivated vendor conditions at the top end, Melbourne represents one of the strongest prestige buying environments in recent years.
Melbourne’s top end is widely regarded as better value than Sydney’s equivalent at most price points. Cohen Handler buyer’s advocate Nicole Jacobs notes that a prestige home in Toorak or South Yarra typically represents a significant discount compared to a comparable property in Point Piper or Bellevue Hill. Melbourne also compares favourably to major Asia-Pacific cities including Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, where the equivalent budget purchases considerably less luxury real estate.
A motivated vendor is a seller with a genuine reason to transact on a defined timeline. This includes deceased estates, divorce settlements, interstate or overseas relocations, and vendors who have been on the market for several months without a result. In these scenarios, price negotiations often have more flexibility than in typical market conditions. Cohen Handler’s Nicole Jacobs has noted Melbourne prestige properties listed at $20 million have transacted as low as $17 million in motivated vendor scenarios, representing meaningful downside for the buyer.
A significant proportion of Melbourne’s top-end transactions never appear on public portals. The exact percentage varies but in the prestige and super-prime segment, off-market and pre-market deals represent a substantial share of activity. Buyers relying solely on published listings are exposed to only a fraction of the available market. A buyer’s advocate with active agent relationships in the relevant precincts will have visibility of properties before, or instead of, their public listing.
A buyer’s advocate represents only the purchaser, there is no vendor relationship, no listings to promote and no conflicting interest. At the prestige end, where a one per cent difference in negotiation can represent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and where off-market access and vendor intelligence are material advantages, independent representation significantly improves outcomes. Cohen Handler’s advocates are embedded in Melbourne’s top-end market and operate across the full transaction cycle, from search and shortlisting through to due diligence, negotiation and settlement.