100 days or more: Where homes languish longest on the market

Demand for homes in Australia’s capital cities is high, with many suburbs seeing homes snapped up in less than a month. But there are places where homes stay for sale longer – some for 100 days or more.

The national median time a house spends on market is 37 days, while it’s 35 days for units, realestate.com.au data shows.

But in 582 suburbs within the country’s greater capital cities, the median time on market was 38 days or more, with 124 of those seeing houses take about two months or more to sell, and 18 of them recording days on market of 100 or more.

There are 582 capital city suburbs with a median time on market of 38 days or more. Picture: Getty

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For units, 393 suburbs had a median time on market of 36 days or more, with 50 of those seeing units take 60 days or more to sell. Five of those suburbs saw days on market of 100 or more for units.

The analysis of realestate.com.au data looked at median days on market in capital city suburbs in the year to June 2025. Only suburbs with 30 or more sales in the year were included.

Both ends of the price scale

Though suburbs where homes take longer to find a buyer could be considered less ‘in-demand’ than their quick-selling counterparts – and therefore less expensive – prices tell a more nuanced story.

Exactly half of the suburbs where houses took longer than 100 days to sell had median house prices lower than the national median of $908,000.

The other nine had median house prices between $1 million and just under $5 million – many of them much more expensive than their respective city’s overall prices.

For example, houses in Sydney’s Palm Beach took about 106 days to find a buyer, however its median house price was an eye-watering $4,937,000 – more than three times Sydney’s overall house median of $1,552,000.

Perth’s most expensive suburb, Peppermint Grove, was also the only one in the western capital where houses took more than 100 days to sell – houses there typically cost about $4.2 million and spend 114 days on market. For comparison, Perth’s overall house median was $913,000.

These two examples show some uber-expensive areas tend to take longer to find the right buyer, as a smaller pool of people typically have the cash to splash on multi-million dollar homes.

Interestingly, suburbs with prices at the other end of the spectrum also landed in the centennial club, including Brisbane’s Russell Island, Lamb Island and Macleay Island.

They are the three cheapest suburbs in Brisbane, with median house prices between $459,000 and $506,000 – a far cry from Brisbane’s overall house median of $1,051,000.

Houses took between 100 and 106 days to sell in the trio of island ‘burbs – which are only accessible by ferry.

This shows accessibility to the city and lifestyle factors can play a role in the time it takes to sell a home. However, it should be noted each of these suburbs have seen relatively strong six-month price growth – potentially indicating investment opportunities.

Melbourne had the most suburbs where houses took 100 or more days to sell.

The Victorian capital had seven suburbs in the centennial club, and also had the ’burb where houses sat unsold for the longest – Westburn in the north-east had a median time on market of 175 days.

Sydney was next with five suburbs on the list, followed by Brisbane with its three islands, and then Perth and Hobart with one each.

Units fare better

When it came to units, just five suburbs had median days on market of 100 days or more.

It was another mixed bag in terms of price points, but four of the five centennial club suburbs were in Sydney.

The suburb where units spent the longest time on market was Belrose on the Northern Beaches, with a median of 122 days. The median price there was slightly higher than Sydney’s overall unit median, $897,000 compared with $858,000.

Next was the ritzy inner-city suburb of The Rocks, where units spent 121 days on market. It’s possible the high median unit price – $1,537,000 – was a factor, as there were likely few willing or able to splash that amount on a unit.

The only non-Sydney suburb where units took more than 100 days to sell was Melbourne’s Laverton. The western suburb saw units languish on the market for a median of 101 days – potentially owing to the popularity and relative affordability of houses there and in surrounding areas.

The median unit price in Laverton is $513,000, but the median house price is just slightly more at $600,000.