Mildura (postcode 3500) is the principal urban centre of the Rural City of Mildura, sitting on the Murray River approximately 545 kilometres north-northwest of Melbourne in the Sunraysia region of north-west Victoria. Its SEIFA IRSAD score of 909 places it in decile 2 of 10 nationally and at the 9th percentile within Victoria, firmly in the disadvantaged band and 91 points below the national mean of 1000. That reading reflects a concentration of lower household incomes, higher welfare dependency, and constrained access to services relative to most Victorian postcodes. Investors should treat this as a structural macro signal, not a short-term fluctuation.
ABS 2021 IRSAD release. Score 909 (national mean = 1000).
A SEIFA IRSAD score of 909 tells a specific story about the economic base underpinning Mildura. The local economy is anchored in horticulture, food processing, retail services, and health care for a wide regional catchment. Median household income sits materially below the Victorian average, and the share of residents relying on government transfer payments is elevated. Within PropertyRanker's twelve-signal model, this reading feeds directly into three criteria: economic_strength (lower score, reflecting constrained income growth and employment diversity), hazard_risk (disadvantaged areas carry statistically higher rates of certain social and infrastructure stressors), and entry_point_risk (lower-income markets can compress vendor pricing power during downturns, which cuts both ways for buyers). On the other side of the ledger, a low SEIFA score is often associated with lower entry prices and higher gross yields, which is precisely why Mildura tends to attract yield-focused investors rather than capital-growth seekers. The suburb's gross rental yields have historically sat well above the Melbourne metropolitan average, making it a candidate for PropertyRanker's High Yield strategy (anchored around 6 percent) or even the Regional strategy (anchored around 7 percent), rather than the Capital Growth strategy (around 3.5 percent) that suits tightly held inner-city markets. Population growth in the broader Mildura LGA has been modest but positive, and the city functions as a genuine regional service hub for a large surrounding area, which provides some demand floor for residential property. However, the low SEIFA reading is a persistent structural feature of this market, not a cyclical dip, and investors should not assume mean reversion toward metropolitan norms.
Mildura's house market has recorded strong price growth, with propertyvalue.com.au (Cotality data) reporting a median sale price of $500,000, up 13.6% annually, across 821 house sales in the past 12 months, and an average vendor discount of -4.7%. PRD Mildura's Q3 2025 market update recorded a median of $550,000, reflecting a 20.9% annual surge, while days on market have been declining since late 2024 per InvestorKit. Vacancy rates remain well below the 3.0% healthy benchmark, sitting at 1.3% as of September 2025 per PRD, though they have edged up slightly over the past 12 months as investors re-entered the rental market.
Anchor points pulled per refresh from publicly available suburb profiles. Approximate; not a moving average.
Days on market have been declining since late 2024 and vendor discounts have narrowed from -5.8% (Q1 2024) to -4.7% currently, but vacancy rates have edged up over the past 12 months as investors re-entered the market, yielding a net warming signal on two of three components.
Sources: PRD Mildura Property Market Update 2nd Half 2025 (2025-11-01); PRD Mildura Property Market Update 1st Half 2025 (2025-05-01); Mildura House Prices and Property Trends (2025-01-01); PRD Mildura Property Market Update 2nd Half 2024 (2024-11-01); PRD Mildura Property Market Update 2nd Half 2023 (2023-11-01) · Refreshed 15 Aug 2026
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 2 shown above gives a listing in Mildura a softer starting line on economic strength, though often a firmer one on entry-price risk, since less advantaged postcodes usually carry lower 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 tends to make the Yield (6% anchor) and Regional (7% anchor) strategies more reachable, because a lower entry price lifts the gross yield a listing can achieve, while a Growth result usually depends on a specific catalyst such as an infrastructure or renewal pipeline.
Read the scoring guide for the full criteria list and how the verdict thresholds work.
A decile 2 SEIFA reading raises specific due-diligence flags that postcode-level data cannot resolve on its own. First, check current SQM vacancy rates for 3500; regional markets with constrained incomes can see vacancy spike quickly when new supply enters or seasonal workers depart. Second, if the target property is a unit or townhouse, obtain the body corporate financials and confirm the sinking fund is adequately provisioned, as strata in lower-income markets can carry deferred maintenance. Third, review flood and planning overlay status carefully; Mildura's Murray River proximity means individual allotments vary significantly in flood exposure, and a postcode-level SEIFA score cannot distinguish a flood-affected block from a clear-title one. Fourth, price the listing against recent comparable sales rather than relying on suburb medians, because value dispersion within a single postcode can be wide in regional cities. Finally, run the specific listing through PropertyRanker to receive a verdict that weighs all twelve signals together, including current vacancy data, overlay status, body corporate health, and pricing against recent comparable sales, none of which a SEIFA reading alone can capture.
Mildura's SEIFA IRSAD score of 909 places it in decile 2 of 10 nationally and at the 9th percentile within Victoria, signalling a structurally disadvantaged economic base rather than a cyclical dip. The local economy leans on horticulture, food processing, and regional health and retail services, with household incomes sitting materially below the Victorian average. PropertyRanker treats this reading as a persistent macro signal that feeds directly into three of its twelve scoring criteria: economic_strength, hazard_risk, and entry_point_risk. The data suggests Mildura tends to suit yield-focused investors more than capital-growth seekers; whether a specific listing scores well depends on the individual property, so run it through the tool for a live result.
Given the low SEIFA reading and the yield profile typically associated with lower-income regional markets, Mildura aligns most naturally with the High Yield strategy (anchored around 6 percent gross yield) or the Regional strategy (anchored around 7 percent), rather than the Capital Growth strategy that suits tightly held inner-city markets at around 3.5 percent. The Balanced strategy at around 5 percent may also be relevant for well-located stock near the city centre or hospital precinct, where demand from the regional service catchment provides some rental floor. Score the specific listing to see which strategy band the gross yield actually falls into, as individual property outcomes will vary.
The primary structural risk is the low SEIFA score itself: constrained household incomes limit rent growth and can compress vendor pricing power during downturns, which PropertyRanker captures through its entry_point_risk and economic_strength criteria. Mildura also carries a documented natural hazard dimension; the Rural City of Mildura has a history of both riverine and storm-related flash flooding, and key levees in the area are actively monitored by Mildura Rural City Council and Lower Murray Water. Investors should check whether a specific property sits within the Floodway Overlay or Land Subject to Inundation Overlay under the Mildura Planning Scheme, and note that flash flooding is considered a higher-frequency risk than riverine events. PropertyRanker's hazard_risk criterion incorporates area-level data, but title-level flood overlay checks remain the investor's own due-diligence step.
Mildura sits approximately 545 kilometres north-northwest of Melbourne, and passenger rail services to the city were discontinued in 1993, leaving coach connections via V/Line as the primary public-transport link; those services connect through Bendigo or Swan Hill and take the better part of a day. The absence of a direct rail link reinforces Mildura's character as a self-contained regional hub rather than a commuter market, which means rental demand is driven almost entirely by the local economy in horticulture, health care, and retail services rather than by Melbourne spillover. That dynamic supports the case for yield-focused strategies but means investors should not expect capital growth narratives tied to metropolitan expansion to apply here.
PropertyRanker runs twelve scoring signals, and the SEIFA IRSAD reading for postcode 3500 directly feeds three of them: economic_strength (reflecting constrained income growth and employment diversity), hazard_risk (accounting for social and infrastructure stressors statistically associated with disadvantaged areas), and entry_point_risk (assessing how lower-income markets behave during downturns). The remaining signals draw on listing-level inputs such as gross yield, property type, and location characteristics within the postcode. Because live yield and vacancy data changes frequently, the tool calculates a current score when you submit the listing rather than relying on suburb-level averages.
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