Altona North (postcode 3025) sits roughly 10 kilometres south-west of Melbourne's CBD inside the City of Hobsons Bay, a council that spans the inner-western shoreline of Port Phillip Bay. Its SEIFA IRSAD score of 990 places it just below the national mean of 1000, landing in decile 6 of 10 nationally and at the 49th percentile within Victoria. That reading puts the suburb squarely in the mid band, meaning it carries neither the socioeconomic tailwinds of Melbourne's more advantaged postcodes nor the structural headwinds of genuinely disadvantaged areas. For investors, the number is a starting point for analysis, not a conclusion.
ABS 2021 IRSAD release. Score 990 (national mean = 1000).
A SEIFA score of 990 in a decile 6 suburb reflects a mixed socioeconomic profile that is broadly consistent with the inner-western Melbourne corridor. Altona North is a suburb in transition: its western portion remains a significant industrial precinct, home to logistics, manufacturing, and heavy industry, while rezoning activity since 2018 has been converting former industrial land to residential use. The former Don Smallgoods and Toyota manufacturing sites are among the parcels that have entered or are entering residential redevelopment pipelines. This structural shift matters to investors because it introduces both opportunity and complexity. New residential supply from rezoned land can compress rents and values in adjacent pockets, while infrastructure investment tied to the Westgate Tunnel project may improve connectivity over time. The suburb's SEIFA reading feeds into three of PropertyRanker's twelve scoring criteria: economic_strength, hazard_risk, and entry_point_risk. A mid-band score suggests moderate economic resilience at the postcode level, but it cannot account for the specific block, the proximity to remaining industrial uses, or the overlay status of a given parcel. The housing stock ranges from postwar homes on generous lots in the residential east to newer infill and townhouse product closer to the redevelopment zones. That diversity means two listings in the same postcode can carry very different risk and return profiles. A decile 6 reading is consistent with a Balanced or Capital Growth strategy orientation, though the presence of ongoing rezoning and industrial adjacency means due diligence on individual sites is especially important here.
Altona North (VIC 3025) recorded a median house sale price of approximately $954,000 over the 12 months to mid-2026, representing annual growth of around 2.25%, according to propertyvalue.com.au (sourced from Cotality/CoreLogic data). yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au (CoreLogic) reported 210 house sales in the 12 months to June 2026 at a median of $950,000, with houses averaging 34 days on market. The rental vacancy rate sits at a tight 1.1% per propradar.com.au (July 2026), and vendor discounting averaged -5.9% per propertyvalue.com.au, pointing to a broadly steady market with modest price growth below the national average.
All three directional signals lack a published prior-period comparison, so each defaults to stable, producing an overall steady band; the low 1.1% vacancy and modest +2.25% price growth are consistent with a market holding firm rather than accelerating or softening.
Sources: Altona North House Prices & Property Trends (2026-06-01); Altona North VIC 3025 Suburb Profile & Property Report (2026-09-28); Altona North VIC 3025 Property Prices, Rent, Yield & Growth (2026-08-04); Altona North VIC 3025 – Median $970K (2026-07-07); Altona North VIC 3025 Established Suburb in Hobsons Bay (2025-09-01) · Refreshed 29 Sep 2026
Altona North's property story for the next several years centres on Precinct 15, a 67 hectare former industrial zone in the City of Hobsons Bay being converted into a mixed use residential neighbourhood, alongside the staged closure and demolition of the former ExxonMobil refinery site nearby. Major developers including Mirvac and Stockland are delivering large townhouse and park projects within this precinct, adding thousands of new dwellings over more than a decade, which has implications for local supply, rental competition and resale values. Council rate settings remain modest and the established housing market shows tight rental vacancy, reflecting strong underlying demand even as new supply comes on line.
A 67 hectare precinct bounded by Blackshaws Road, Kyle Road, New Street and the West Gate Freeway is transitioning from industrial use to a residential mixed use neighbourhood, with the Victorian Planning Authority and Hobsons Bay City Council overseeing a Development Contributions Plan for the area.
Mirvac's Fabric development within Precinct 15 represents a $350 million investment of 550 plus townhomes, targeting mid 2027 completion, one of several major projects adding supply to the suburb over a long build out horizon.
The former ExxonMobil refinery, which closed in 2021, began demolition of its tanks and infrastructure in 2025, gradually freeing up land that has long defined the suburb's industrial west.
Stockland's Haven project, comprising around 289 townhomes on a former logistics headquarters site, is currently selling move-in ready and off-plan stages as part of the broader Precinct 15 master plan which will eventually house about 7,000 residents across 3,000 dwellings.
The Lawn, an 8.9 hectare open space component of the Precinct 15 master plan, opened in July 2025, adding new public amenity to the emerging residential precinct.
The average general rate increase for residential properties across Hobsons Bay, the LGA covering Altona North, will be 2.25 per cent for 2025-26, below the Victorian Government's 3.0 per cent rate cap.
Updated 26 Jul 2026. Items link to their original sources. Compiled by AI from public reporting; verify anything material before relying on it.
PropertyRanker scores any Australian property against 12 criteria across three pillars: Growth, Cashflow, and Risk. SEIFA is a primary signal for economic strength and a supporting one for entry-price risk. It also informs the crime side of hazard risk, though physical overlays like flood, bushfire and coastal exposure, and recorded crime data where available, take priority there. The decile of 6 shown above gives a listing in Altona North a stronger starting line on economic strength than the national median postcode, and a softer one on entry-price risk, since more advantaged postcodes usually carry higher entry prices.
On top of that, PropertyRanker chooses one of four strategies (Balanced, Growth, Yield, Regional) and applies a per-strategy yield anchor. The anchors are 3.5% for Growth, 5% for Balanced, 6% for Yield, and 7% for Regional. A postcode at this level of relative advantage tends to suit the Growth (3.5% anchor) and Balanced (5% anchor) strategies more readily than Yield (6%) or Regional (7%), because a higher entry price compresses the gross yield a listing can reach without a specific value-add.
Read the scoring guide for the full criteria list and how the verdict thresholds work.
SEIFA is a postcode-level read. The fastest sanity check on any single decile reading is to compare it against the suburbs that surround it.
Before drawing any conclusions from the SEIFA reading, an investor should confirm several things at the listing level. First, check the planning overlay and zoning status of the specific parcel: proximity to the Altona North Industrial Precinct or a rezoning boundary can affect amenity, future supply, and financing conditions. Second, review flood and drainage overlays, as parts of the Hobsons Bay LGA include low-lying land near Kororoit Creek. Third, assess current SQM vacancy data for the postcode rather than relying on suburb-level averages, because new supply from rezoned sites can shift vacancy quickly in localised pockets. Fourth, if the listing is a unit or townhouse, obtain body corporate records and check for any special levies tied to newer construction. Finally, compare the asking price against recent comparable sales in the same street type and build era, not across the whole suburb. Run the specific listing through PropertyRanker to get a verdict that accounts for current vacancy, overlay status, body corporate health, and pricing against recent comparable sales, all of which a postcode-level SEIFA reading cannot see.
The SEIFA IRSAD score of 990 (decile 6, 49th percentile in Victoria) places Altona North in the mid band, suggesting moderate socioeconomic conditions rather than a clear structural advantage or disadvantage. The suburb's ongoing transition from industrial to residential land use adds a layer of complexity that a postcode score alone cannot resolve. Whether a specific listing here suits an investment strategy depends on its location within the suburb, its proximity to remaining industrial uses, and how it prices against recent comparable sales. Score the individual listing in PropertyRanker for a more complete picture.
A mid-band SEIFA score and an inner-western Melbourne location within 10 kilometres of the CBD are broadly consistent with a Capital Growth or Balanced strategy orientation, which target gross yield anchors of around 3.5 percent and 5 percent respectively. The suburb's rezoning activity and infrastructure investment context may support longer-term capital appreciation, but new residential supply from converted industrial land could weigh on near-term yield. A High Yield or Regional strategy, which targets 6 to 7 percent gross yields, is less likely to be achievable in this postcode without taking on additional risk. Confirm current yield conditions by scoring the specific listing in PropertyRanker.
The most significant risks to assess are industrial adjacency, new supply from rezoned land, and planning overlay exposure. The western portion of the suburb remains an active industrial precinct, and some residential parcels sit close to that boundary, which can affect liveability and resale appeal. Ongoing rezoning of former factory sites introduces the possibility of concentrated new supply in specific pockets, which can soften rents and values locally. Flood and drainage overlays near Kororoit Creek are also worth checking for any given parcel. None of these risks are visible in the SEIFA reading alone, which is why a listing-level assessment is essential.
PropertyRanker uses twelve scoring criteria, and SEIFA IRSAD sits on the macro side of the model, contributing to economic_strength, hazard_risk, and entry_point_risk assessments. For Altona North, the decile 6 score of 990 anchors those three criteria at a mid-band level. The remaining criteria draw on listing-level inputs including current SQM vacancy data, flood and planning overlay status, body corporate health for strata properties, and pricing against recent comparable sales. The model is designed to surface what a postcode-level reading like SEIFA cannot see, which is why the same suburb can produce very different scores for different listings.
Newport (3015) and Yarraville (3013) are confirmed bordering suburbs that generally carry stronger established residential characters and, in the case of Yarraville, a more gentrified inner-west profile. A direct SEIFA comparison would require checking the published scores for those postcodes, which may differ from Altona North's 990 reading. Altona North's mid-band position and its active rezoning dynamic mean it occupies a different risk and opportunity profile from its neighbours, even within the same broad corridor. Investors comparing these suburbs should score specific listings in each postcode through PropertyRanker rather than relying on suburb-level generalisations.
Paste a real address. Get a defensible verdict across 12 criteria in around three minutes.
Score a property free