A house block in Sydney's new suburbs is 381 m². In its established suburbs it is 604 m².
We measured 8.7 million house blocks in six states and territories from the state land registries' lot boundaries. In every mainland capital, the typical block in a fast-growing new suburb is 32% to 42% smaller than in suburbs that have barely changed.
Every state publishes the boundaries of every land parcel. We calculated the area of each one in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, and kept the 8.7 million that hold exactly one street address: a house on its own block. Then we compared suburbs that have grown fast with suburbs that have barely changed.
In every mainland capital, the typical house block in a new suburb is 32% to 42% smaller than in an established one.
| City | Established suburbs | New suburbs | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 604 m² | 381 m² | 37% smaller |
| Melbourne | 574 m² | 393 m² | 32% smaller |
| Brisbane | 632 m² | 410 m² | 35% smaller |
| Adelaide | 651 m² | 375 m² | 42% smaller |
| Canberra | 790 m² | 477 m² | 40% smaller |
Median house block. "Established" suburbs are those whose number of dwellings grew by less than 10% between the 2016 and 2021 Census; "new" suburbs grew by 60% or more. Hobart has too few new-suburb blocks to compare.
More than half are under 400 m²
In the new suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, 54% of house blocks are smaller than 400 m². In Brisbane's it is 42%, in Canberra's 30%. For comparison, a quarter-acre block is 1,012 m².
The ten new suburbs with the smallest blocks are on the fringes of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide:
| Suburb | House blocks | Median block | Distance from the CBD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bardia, Sydney | 2,027 | 279 m² | 45 km |
| Austral, Sydney | 7,771 | 321 m² | 52 km |
| Box Hill, Sydney | 6,954 | 328 m² | 47 km |
| Donnybrook, Melbourne | 6,781 | 350 m² | 49 km |
| Thornhill Park, Melbourne | 4,001 | 350 m² | 43 km |
| Clyde, Melbourne | 8,779 | 352 m² | 59 km |
| Mickleham, Melbourne | 12,234 | 374 m² | 38 km |
| Wollert, Melbourne | 14,928 | 374 m² | 42 km |
| Seaford Heights, Adelaide | 1,114 | 375 m² | 36 km |
| Leppington, Sydney | 5,668 | 375 m² | 52 km |
Suburbs with at least 1,000 house blocks whose number of dwellings at least doubled between 2016 and 2021, leaving out inner-city redevelopment such as Bowden in Adelaide (94 m²).
Further out is not bigger
Buyers usually trade a longer commute for more land. In Sydney and Melbourne the land stops growing about 30 km out. The median Sydney house block 20 to 30 km from the CBD is 639 m²; 40 to 60 km out it is 558 m². In Melbourne it is 560 m² at 20 to 30 km and 529 m² at 40 to 60 km. Only beyond 60 km does the median rise again, to 691 m² in Sydney and 766 m² in Melbourne.
The smallest house blocks of all are inner-city terraces. The median house block in Surry Hills is 110 m², in Carlton 120 m².
Capitals and the rest of each state
| Area | House blocks | Median block | Under 300 m² | 1,000 m² or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Melbourne | 1,998,908 | 533 m² | 25% | 10% |
| Greater Sydney | 1,264,609 | 593 m² | 10% | 13% |
| Greater Brisbane | 992,183 | 610 m² | 14% | 19% |
| Greater Adelaide | 548,982 | 620 m² | 13% | 12% |
| Greater Hobart | 104,945 | 688 m² | 10% | 26% |
| ACT | 121,904 | 759 m² | 5% | 17% |
| Regional Victoria | 863,142 | 762 m² | 9% | 37% |
| Regional Queensland | 1,188,127 | 814 m² | 11% | 41% |
| Regional New South Wales | 1,177,014 | 820 m² | 2% | 40% |
| Regional Tasmania | 164,752 | 933 m² | 5% | 47% |
| Regional South Australia | 230,616 | 1,004 m² | 3% | 51% |
Melbourne's median is the lowest of the capitals, but part of that is how each state titles small homes. A Victorian townhouse development is usually subdivided into separate lots, so each townhouse counts here as a house block. The same development in New South Wales is usually strata titled, and a strata lot is not a house block. In new suburbs, where both states sell freehold lots, Melbourne and Sydney are within 12 m² of each other.
How we counted
- Lots are each state's cadastre: NSW Spatial Services, Vicmap Property, Queensland's cadastre, Land Services SA, Tasmania's LIST and ACT blocks, all published under Creative Commons licences. Western Australia's full cadastre is not open, and the Northern Territory is not included.
- Area is calculated from the lot boundary, not taken from the title, because most older lots do not record an area.
- A "house block" is a ground lot (not a strata or unit lot) holding exactly one street address, G-NAF's street and number. A lot with two or more street numbers, such as a dual occupancy, is not counted. About one address in five sits on a lot shared with another street number.
- Each address is matched to the smallest ground lot that contains its address point. 97% to 99% of addresses match a lot in five of the six; South Australia matches 86%, because its strata plans have no ground parcel under the units. Those are units, not houses, so the house figures are not affected.
- Growth is the change in each suburb's number of dwellings between the 2016 and 2021 Census. Cities are the ABS Greater Capital City Statistical Areas; the ACT is the whole territory.
Property pages on SuburbScan in these six states and territories now show the land area of the lot and how it compares with the typical house block in that suburb.