Get a property report and suburb profile for any property in Oak Park

Oak Park is a quiet, residential pocket in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, centred on a small village shopping strip and its railway station on the Upfield line. The streets are leafy and mainly lined with interwar and post-war single-fronted brick cottages and modest bungalows, with some more recent infill in the back streets. Regular train services make trips into the city straightforward.

Home to 6,714 people with a median age of 36, Oak Park leans strongly towards families and long-term residents. About two in three dwellings are owner-occupied and renters make up roughly a third. Parks, sporting grounds, a handful of cafes and shops give the area a low-key, community-minded feel, and council work has focused on sports, open space and local amenities with further early-years infrastructure planned. Whether it suits you will depend on whether you value a calm, established neighbourhood with easy suburban connections.

A median house price of $937,500 in Oak Park works out to about 8.2 times a typical local household's annual income at the last Census (weekly household income $2,201), so buying sits well above what households locally were earning at the last Census. Renting is more moderate: a house rent of $638 a week would take about 29.0% of a typical local household's weekly income at the last Census, and a unit rent of $500 a week would take about 22.8%. If you're renting rather than buying, those rent shares are the figures that matter.

Everyone's financial situation is different, so it's important to consider your own circumstances when deciding which suburb is right for you.

The past 12 months in Oak Park show modest capital growth for houses and a stronger lift for units. Median house values rose 3.0% over the year, a modest increase, while median unit values climbed 5.8%, a solid rise. On the income side, house rents increased 6.3%, a solid gain, and unit rents rose 4.2%, a modest increase.

Put simply, unit values were the stronger performer for capital growth, while houses led on rental income this year. Which of those outcomes matters to you will depend on whether you prioritise capital growth or rental income and on your own circumstances.

This information has been prepared without taking your objectives, needs and overall financial situation into account. It is not meant to be a substitute for professional financial advice. For this reason, you should consider the appropriateness of the information and, if necessary, seek appropriate professional advice.