Melbourne Median House Price in Bitcoin
How many Bitcoin does it cost to buy the median Melbourne dwelling? In Q1 2014 it took about 1,089 BTC. At the BTC price on 8 October 2026 it takes about 7.29 BTC, a 99.3 percent decline. CoreLogic quarterly medians divided by the real BTC AUD price at each quarter-end, refreshed automatically.
Chart
Melbourne median dwelling price (CoreLogic Home Value Index) divided by BTC AUD spot at each quarter-end. Logarithmic Y-axis. Quarterly from Q1 2014, plus a provisional latest point at today's BTC price.
What the chart shows
The ratio (Melbourne median dwelling AUD) / (BTC AUD close at quarter-end), quarterly from Q1 2014 to Q2 2026 on a logarithmic Y-axis, plus a provisional point at today's BTC price. Three phases mirror the broader Australian property and BTC story. (1) 2014-2017: the ratio fell from about 1,089 to about 41.8 BTC as BTC AUD rose from about $491 to about $17,809. (2) 2018-2020: it ranged between about 19.1 to 133 BTC through the 2018-2019 BTC bear market and Melbourne's COVID-disrupted market. (3) 2021 onward: a second fall, to about 5.38 BTC at Q4 2024, then a rebound to about 10.2 BTC in Q2 2026 as BTC corrected from its late-2025 high.
Melbourne vs Sydney comparison
| Date | Melbourne (AUD) | Melbourne in BTC | Sydney (AUD) | Sydney in BTC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2014 | $535,000 | 1,089 BTC | $650,000 | 1,323 BTC |
| Q4 2017 | $745,000 | 41.8 BTC | $910,000 | 51.1 BTC |
| Q4 2018 | $695,000 | 133 BTC | $830,000 | 158 BTC |
| Q2 2020 | $710,000 | 53.4 BTC | $855,000 | 64.3 BTC |
| Q4 2021 | $925,000 | 14.5 BTC | $1,140,000 | 17.9 BTC |
| Q1 2023 | $790,000 | 18.6 BTC | $1,050,000 | 24.8 BTC |
| Q4 2024 | $815,000 | 5.38 BTC | $1,190,000 | 7.86 BTC |
| Q2 2026* | $862,000 | 10.2 BTC | $1,366,000 | 16.1 BTC |
* Estimate: the last CoreLogic median extended by ABS mean dwelling price growth for the state.
Both cities lost more than 99 percent of their BTC-denominated purchasing power since 2014 (Melbourne 99.3 percent, Sydney 99.1 percent). The cross-city ratio has stayed broadly stable: at today's prices a median Sydney dwelling costs 1.58x a median Melbourne dwelling in BTC, the same multiple as in AUD, reflecting the durable premium Sydney has carried over Melbourne.
Why Australian investors care
- Same denomination story, lower absolute BTC count. Melbourne property starts smaller in AUD and BTC than Sydney property, so the BTC needed to buy the median Melbourne dwelling (about 7.29 BTC at today's price) is within reach for medium-stack BTC holders. The portfolio-allocation framing changes when 'one home equivalent' is single-digit BTC.
- Cross-city allocation visibility. Investors weighing Sydney vs Melbourne property can compare absolute BTC ratios alongside AUD price. The BTC-denominated view smooths away the AUD-debasement signal and isolates the relative real-asset value: Sydney property is about 1.58x Melbourne in BTC, the same ratio as in AUD, indicating no relative-value divergence.
- Cycle-timing reference. Buying property when the BTC-denominated ratio was elevated (Q2 2020 at about 53.4 BTC for Melbourne) meant paying a lot in BTC terms; the same dwelling cost about 14.5 BTC eighteen months later. The ratio is a reference for how property and BTC cycles interact, not a timing signal on its own.
- SMSF strategic allocation. SMSF trustees holding both Melbourne investment property and BTC can use the chart to track relative-wealth positioning over time. The 50-year horizon framework suggests property compounds with construction-cost inflation; BTC compounds with adoption-curve growth and supply discipline. Both have merits; the BTC denomination clarifies which won the past twelve years.
Methodology
- Melbourne property source. CoreLogic Home Value Index dwelling-price median for Melbourne, quarterly from Q1 2014 to Q1 2026. Later quarters are extended by the quarterly growth in the ABS mean dwelling price for Victoria (free ABS data API) and marked as estimates. Values rounded to the nearest thousand.
- BTC AUD source. The real BTC AUD close on each quarter-end date from the SatoshiMacro BTC AUD daily dataset. The latest point divides the most recent quarterly value by today's close.
- Ratio calculation. Melbourne median AUD divided by BTC AUD close for each quarter-end. Output rounded to 0.0001 BTC.
- Refresh and fallback. The BTC side refreshes twice a day (07:30 and 13:30 Sydney) and the site rebuilds when the data changes. The last good snapshot in assets/data/wave7.json keeps the chart rendering if any upstream is unreachable.
Related tools
- Sydney median house price in BTC - the harbour-capital comparator.
- Australia national median dwelling in BTC - the combined-capital-cities aggregate.
- ASX 200 priced in BTC - the equity-index counterpart.
- Gold ounces per BTC - the precious-metals counterpart.
- Bitcoin log regression (AUD) - the BTC-AUD fair-value reference.
Frequently asked questions
The Melbourne median dwelling price (AUD) divided by the BTC AUD price at each quarter-end. In Q1 2014 the ratio was about 1,089 BTC; by Q4 2017 it had fallen to about 41.8 BTC; in Q2 2026 it was about 10.2 BTC, and at today's BTC price it is about 7.29 BTC. The Y-axis is logarithmic to show the multi-cycle range. Falling line = Bitcoin outperforms Melbourne property; rising line = Melbourne property outperforms Bitcoin.
Same direction, slightly different magnitude. Sydney's median fell from about 1,323 BTC to about 11.5 BTC; Melbourne's fell from about 1,089 BTC to about 7.29 BTC. Melbourne started lower in AUD (about $535K in Q1 2014 versus Sydney's $650K) and appreciated more slowly (1.61x versus Sydney's 2.10x), so it lost slightly more in BTC terms on a percentage basis: 99.3 percent versus 99.1 percent.
Three reasons. (1) Melbourne's 2017-2019 correction had a longer trough than Sydney's before the 2021 boom. (2) Victoria's COVID lockdowns, among the longest in the developed world, suppressed Melbourne demand from mid-2020 through 2022 while Sydney rallied harder. (3) Victoria's tax mix (stamp duty plus the 2023 land-tax increase) has shifted investor demand away from Melbourne. Net result: Melbourne's median rose 1.61x in AUD from Q1 2014 against Sydney's 2.10x. In BTC terms both lost more than 99 percent.
Melbourne gross rental yields have run slightly above Sydney's, but the net-of-costs differential is marginal; both typically fall in the 1.5-2.5 percent net range. Bitcoin generates no yield directly. Layering yield onto the chart lifts the property side modestly each year, which is small relative to the fall from about 1,089 BTC to about 7.29 BTC over the sample.
It depends on whether BTC keeps outpacing AUD-denominated assets. The decline since 2014 reflects a roughly 241x rise in the BTC AUD price while Melbourne property rose about 1.61x in AUD. The path is not one-way: the ratio rises whenever BTC falls faster than property, as in 2018 and from late 2025. Structural argument: Bitcoin has algorithmic supply discipline; Melbourne property does not. If the supply asymmetry persists, the long-run ratio probably keeps declining; if BTC matures and the supply premium compresses, it stabilises.
CoreLogic Home Value Index quarterly median anchors for Melbourne from Q1 2014 to Q1 2026, extended each later quarter by the growth in the ABS mean dwelling price for Victoria (free ABS data API) and marked as estimates. Each quarter is divided by the real BTC AUD close on the quarter-end date from the SatoshiMacro BTC AUD daily dataset (Bitstamp BTC/USD converted at the daily AUDUSD rate, with Kraken's native BTC/AUD for recent years). The latest point divides the most recent quarterly value by today's BTC price. The data refreshes automatically twice a day.
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