The Marketin Darebin
List before Christmas, or wait for February?
5 Nov 2026
By the editor · Figures: Domain suburb profiles
The honest answer depends less on the calendar than on what you are selling and where. Across Darebin right now, the cheaper end of the market is clearing faster than the expensive end, and that is the reverse of what most people assume.
Start with the spread. A three-bedroom house in Northcote has a median of $1.576 million. Six kilometres north, the same house in Reservoir sits at $875,000. That is a gap of $700,000 across twenty minutes of the 86 tram, and it is the single most important fact about this market.
Now look at what is actually selling. Reservoir recorded 430 three-bedroom house sales in the past twelve months, more than Northcote, Thornbury and Fairfield combined. Preston logged 236. Fairfield managed 35.
Volume follows affordability, and so does speed. Macleod's three-bedroom houses are moving in a median 28 days, Thornbury and Bundoora in 34. Fairfield takes 61 days and Alphington 62, roughly twice as long.
Clearance rates tell the same story. Thornbury and Macleod are clearing three-bedroom houses at 74 per cent, Reservoir at 71 and Bundoora at 70. Northcote sits at 64 per cent, Fairfield 63, and Alphington at 54, the weakest in the municipality. The four-bedroom problem. In almost every suburb here, larger houses clear worse than three-bedroom ones. Thornbury's four-bedroom clearance is 58 per cent against 74 for three-bedroom. Northcote: 58 again 64. Fairfield: 42 against 63. If you are selling a big family house, you are in the slower half of this market regardless of the month.
So: before Christmas or after? If you are in Reservoir, Preston, Bundoora or Macleod with a three-bedroom house, the data says buyers are there now and moving quickly. If you are selling a four-bedroom house in Fairfield or Alphington, the extra six weeks of preparation that a February campaign buys you is likely to matter more than the date.
None of which is advice about your house. It is what eight suburbs of public sales data looked like this month.
THREE-BEDROOM HOUSE MEDIANs
| Suburb | Median Price |
| Northcote | $1.576m |
| Fairfield | $1.48m |
| Thornbury | $1.36m |
| Alphington | $1.25m |
| Preston | $1.08m |
| Macleod | $992k |
| Reservoir | $875k |
| Bundoora | $842k |
| Domain suburb profiles, sales in the 12 months to October 2026 | |
BY SUBURB — three-bedroom houses and two-bedroom units
| SUBURB | 3-BED HOUSE | DAYS | CLEARANCE | SOLD | 2-BED UNIT | DAYS | CLEARANCE | SOLD |
| Northcote | $1.576m | 37 | 64% | 168 | $700.5k | 28 | 71% | 118 |
| Fairfield | $1.48m | 61 | 63% | 35 | $612k | 23 | 80% | 41 |
| Thornbur | $1.36m | 34 | 74% | 156 | $667.5k | 27 | 83% | 83 |
| Alphington | $1.25m | 62 | 54% | 41 | $824.5k | 40 | — | 44 |
| Preston | $1.08m | 41 | 67% | 236 | $550k | 33 | 64% | 239 |
| Macleod | $992k | 28 | 74% | 59 | $713.5k | 44 | 85% | 23 |
| Reservoir | $875k | 43 | 71% | 430 | $620k | 28 | 71% | 188 |
| Bundoora | $842k | 34 | 70% | 220 | $440k | 42 | 68% | 138 |
Source: Domain suburb profiles, accessed 19 October 2026. Domain states the figures are based on sales within the last 12 months. These are medians by bedroom count, not whole-of-suburb medians, and the two are not interchangeable. Figures are for the suburb, not for any individual property — a property's likely selling price depends on its own characteristics. Statements of Information for properties advertised in this paper carry their own suburb median, stated separately on page 11.
Filed under The Market · Darebin