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Would you like a list of the five locations that are set to outperform the market in 2026? You're in the right place. We're unpacking the behind-the-scenes research the entire InvestorKit team compiles and giving it away to everyone today, sharing five locations, the data behind why they're set to outperform, so you can start your 2026 the strongest way possible. I'm Junge Ma, the senior research analyst at InvestorKit. Now let's get into it.
Now that in 2026, we're not looking at interest rates to go down anytime soon, affordability will continue to be one of the top concerns for property buyers, including investors. So in the coming year, we're expecting some of the still affordable markets or relatively lower priced markets to outperform again. And in this episode, I'm picking just five of them and explain to you why their affordability is attracting more demand and why that will eventually drive more growth. So first, we're going to start with Melbourne, but make sure you stick around to the end because we've got an area on the list with a median house price of $600,000, but sometimes you can get a house for less. Now let's start with Melbourne.
In Melbourne, we're looking at the relatively older area of Broom Bank, middle ring region around 10 kilometers from the Melbourne CBD. It's affordable because housing stock there is relatively old. The local economy has been improving over the past 10 years. Unemployment rate now is not particularly low. It's actually at 6.
7%, but it's been declining over the past 10 years. Back in 2017, the unemployment rate there was actually 12%. So over years, local economy has been improving and infrastructure service livability overall has been improving as well. Now we look at the recent property market trends and these data points are the reasons why we believe it is going to speed up and outperform. First thing, supply versus demand.
The inventory level. Inventory now is sitting at 2. 1 months of stock compared to last year, it has dropped by around one third. So from a just balanced level of 3. 3 to the current two months of stock.
So supply is shrinking. And then if we look at demand, a good indicator to look at is days on market. Days on market in Broom Bank has been declining since early 2025. That means buyers are taking less time to hesitate before they make the decision to buy in this area. So in the sales market, supply is shrinking, demand is increasing.
Then how about the rental market? In the rental market, vacancy rate has been below 1% for several years. Now it has increased slightly from last year's really low level, but it is still sitting at 0. 95%. Still considered a very tight rental market.
Houses are being rented relatively fast. It has increased from last year's extremely low level, but it's still sitting at 0. 95%, which is still considered really tight. And houses are being rented really fast. So now we've got a tight sales market, a tight rental market.
On top of that, we have a relatively affordable house price at around $730,000. I'm saying it's relatively affordable because we're not comparing it with the regional Victorian towns with a $600,000 median prices. We're actually comparing it with the greater Melbourne area. And relative to the proximity to the Melbourne CBD. All these factors working together, we're actually seeing the three-month rolling median trend line diverging up compared to the 12-month rolling median trend line, meaning that growth is speeding up.
In the past year, median house price has grown by 6. 6% in Broom Bank. And now with the tight conditions and the already speeding up momentum, we would expect Broom Bank to outperform the greater Melbourne market. And the second region we are looking at is also a greater capital city region. When we're talking about affordability in Brisbane, Ipswich is one of the most affordable areas in Brisbane right now.
The unemployment rate has been declining since 2020. Back in 2020, it was sitting at 10. 5%. But now it is just above 6% and is continuously going down. This is a clear sign of gentrification.
So we're seeing the local socioeconomic conditions continuously improving over time. Ipswich's median house price increased by 14% in the past year. Median price in Ipswich now is around $750,000. Again, it doesn't sound really affordable, but if we compare it with the greater Brisbane's median of over $1 million, that's actually a much more affordable level. And now recent trends.
In the sales market, inventory level has already been very low since early 2024. Over 2025, it actually further declined from a 2. 4 months of stock to the current two months of stock. So supply is further shrinking compared to the demand level. And days on market, when we're talking about demand, has been stabilized at around 15, 16 days.
That is really short time on the market, showing really high buyer's urgency. And in the rental market, vacancy rate has been declining over 2025, now sitting at 0. 6%, an extremely low level. And that low level of vacancy rate is actually pushing rental growth continuously several years in a row now. And looking into 2026, we're still seeing shrinking supply, high demand, and tight rental market.
All these conditions combined with the relative affordability it has got will make sure that in 2026, price growth will remain healthy, if not speed up, considering the high interest rate environment we'll be facing. Now for the third market, we're starting to talk about regional markets. Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. The current median price is around $600,000, one of the most affordable markets in New South Wales. The local economy is strong and balanced with an unemployment rate of 3.
7%. It's not as low as where it was two years ago, which was around 2. 5%. But it's still lower than the state's average level. And also 3.
7% is actually much lower than the commonly held as full employment of 5%. In the property market, we're actually seeing signs of a fast improving market pressure. Inventory level is now around three months of stock. Well, at the same time last year, it was still above four. So over just one year, inventory level has moved from what's considered as loose to what's considered as tight.
And now days on market, the buyer demand indicator. If we look at the 12-month rolling median trend line, it's actually just coming down slowly. But if we look at a three-month rolling median trend line, the drop has been dramatic. In early 2025, days on market in three-month rolling median terms was 62 days. And now it has dropped to just above 40 days.
So 30% drop in a year. That's a clear sign that demand is increasing fast relative to supply. And now in the rental market, vacancy rate has been steadily low at around 0. 6, 0. 7%.
There's no clear sign of increasing anytime soon. As a result, rental growth has been healthy over the past few years. So if we combine all these conditions, the tightening sales market, the already tight rental market, and the relative affordability and a healthy job market, it's not hard to conclude that Wagga's growth will be speeding up in the coming year. Actually, we have already seen this divergence between the three-month rolling median trend line and the 12-month rolling median trend line. In the past one year, median house price has grown by around 6%.
And in 2026, we'll be expecting a much higher figure than that. Now the fourth city and the second regional city, Toowoomba. We're back in Queensland. Toowoomba's local economy is strengthening as similar to all the other cities. The unemployment rate now is 2.
8%. And it has been largely trending down since 2020, similar to Ipswich. And in the property market, pressure has been high for a few years now. And in 2026, the pressure is going to remain high. We can see that in several indicators.
First, inventory. Inventory in Toowoomba has been around 1. 5 months in 2024 and 2025. And now it is just staying there. No signs of going up.
Days on market has dropped from a low level of just 18 days back in 2024 to an even lower level of 15 days. And it's been staying there for the whole 2025. And now it has increased a bit, but there's no sign of a fast increase. So buyer demand is remaining strong in Toowoomba. In the rental market, vacancy rate has been low and it's actually been dropping gradually over the past two years.
Currently, it is around 0. 6%, extremely low level and driving very healthy rental growth. Toowoomba's last one year growth was already very impressive, 16% in a year. Moving into 2026, because of the tight conditions in the market and the relative affordability, comparing the other major cities in Southeast Queensland, we would expect Toowoomba's healthy growth to continue. And finally, we're going to Victoria and look at the regional city of Benegal.
Local job market has been quite active. Now the unemployment rate is 4%, much lower than its own last decade average, very much in line with Victoria's state average. In the property market, inventory level is now 2. 6 compared to the five months of stock just a year ago. That's fast drop.
Days on market has also been dropping steadily as well. Last year, it was around 40 days or even higher. And now it has dropped to 24 days. And again, if we are looking at three months rolling median trend line, it's actually dropping even faster.
