Key takeaways
- Written mid-2024 — vacancy and yield figures are point-in-time and should be checked before acting.
- Melbourne's rental vacancy fell to 0.9% in early 2024 and has stayed tight, reaching 1.1% in October 2025.
- Gross yields at the time ran 3–5% for houses and 4–6% for apartments, against 3–4% and 4–5% in Sydney.
- The case for Melbourne over Sydney rests on a lower entry price with comparable or better yield, not on faster headline growth.
- The trigger for most Singaporean buyers is ABSD — 20% for a citizen's second property, 30% for a third — making the next local purchase uneconomic.
Melbourne is not going to outperform Singapore. I want to say that in the first line, because most articles like this one open by implying the opposite.
CoreLogic had Melbourne house values down 1.2% and units down 0.2% over the year to June. The cash rate is back at 4.35% after rising through 2026, and cuts are not expected before 2027. This is a flat market.
The argument for Melbourne has never been growth. It is the entry cost — and on that one measure the gap is not close.
The number that actually drives this decision
If you already own two properties in Singapore, a third costs you 30% in ABSD before you own anything. On a S$2 million purchase that is S$600,000 paid to IRAS on the day you sign.
In Victoria, as a foreign buyer, you pay general stamp duty of roughly 5.5% plus the 8% foreign purchaser additional duty — around 13.5% all in.
| Entry cost | Singapore (3rd property) | Victoria (foreign buyer) |
|---|---|---|
| Headline duty | 30% ABSD, plus BSD | ~5.5% general duty |
| Foreign / additional | Included above | 8% foreign purchaser duty |
| Approximate total | ~33–34% | ~13.5% |
| On a S$2m / A$1m purchase | ~S$660,000 | ~A$135,000 |
That is the whole case. Not liveability rankings, not population charts. You can deploy the same capital into a market where the government takes a third less of it at the door.
What you give up in exchange
An honest comparison has to run both ways, so here is what Melbourne costs you that Singapore does not.
- An annual absentee owner land tax surcharge, on top of ordinary land tax, every year you hold it
- Currency risk. Your rent and your eventual sale proceeds are in Australian dollars and your life is in Singapore dollars
- The CGT main residence exemption is gone for foreign residents. If you are a non-resident for tax purposes when you sell, you can lose that exemption entirely — this catches people who assume the Singapore treatment carries over
- You cannot buy established property. Foreign buyers are restricted to new dwellings until 30 June 2029, so your choice is off-the-plan or unsold developer stock in a completed building
- Distance. You are not driving past on a Sunday to see how it looks
If those trade-offs are unacceptable, that is a legitimate answer and you should stop here. The ABSD saving is not free money.
The rental market, dated honestly
Melbourne vacancy was 0.9% in early 2024 and around 1.1% in October 2025 — historically very tight, but no longer tightening. Views per rental listing have been falling year on year since mid-2023, which is the early signal that demand is cooling even while the vacancy number still looks dramatic.
So the rental story is: strong, and past its peak. Underwrite your numbers on current rent, not on another year of increases.
Where Melbourne genuinely earns the comparison
You can buy a house. Freehold landed property in Melbourne sits at prices that buy an apartment in Singapore. For a family thinking about a child studying there, or a possible move later, that is a different asset class rather than a cheaper version of the same one.
The education argument is concrete. If your child is doing three or four years at Melbourne or RMIT, you are looking at somewhere between A$130,000 and A$180,000 in rent over that period. Buying converts that expense into an asset you still hold afterwards, and it is why a large share of my Singaporean clients start here rather than with a yield calculation.
Yields are higher than Singapore's, typically 4–5% gross on inner-Melbourne apartments. Gross, not net — after owners corporation fees, rates, land tax, the absentee surcharge and management, expect meaningfully less.
Who this suits
It suits you if you are ABSD-blocked on a third Singapore property, if you are buying ahead of a child's studies, or if you want a freehold house rather than another apartment and Singapore prices that out of reach.
It does not suit you if you need the investment to grow in the next three years, if currency risk keeps you up at night, or if you would rather hold one Singapore property well than two spread across markets.
What I would want to know before advising you
- How many Singapore properties you already hold, since that sets your ABSD rate
- Whether this is an investment or somewhere a family member will live
- Your tax residency at the point you expect to sell — this decides the CGT outcome
- Whether you want an apartment or land, because they behave differently
If you want this run properly
Send me those four answers. I will come back with the total entry cost in both markets side by side, the net yield after every Victorian surcharge, and a straight view on whether the ABSD saving actually survives the costs on the other side.
Sometimes it does not, and the right answer is to stay in Singapore. I would rather tell you that now than sell you something you regret in 2029.