The Top Five Suburbs on Brisbane’s Northside – Where to Buy and Why

Brisbane's northside runs from $840,000 units to $1.9 million Queenslanders inside about four kilometres of each other, and most "best suburbs" lists will not tell you which is which. This one names the numbers.

Below are five suburbs in Brisbane's north worth a serious look, each with its current median house and unit price, how those medians moved over the last year, how fast stock is selling, and what the trade-off is. Every figure comes from realestate.com.au and covers the twelve months of sales to August 2026.

One thing before the list. A median is not a price guide. It is the middle sale in a suburb across a year, and it moves with the mix of what happened to sell. A suburb showing 55% unit growth on eleven sales has not gone up 55%. Where the sample is too thin to lean on, we have said so.

What the northside of Brisbane costs right now

Four things stand out. Grange is the premium address and prices like it, at a median more than half a million above Mitchelton. Enoggera is the fastest market of the five on both counts, up 12.8% with houses selling in eighteen days. Mitchelton is the entry point and carries roughly double everyone else's sales volume, which means choice. And Alderley's houses have essentially stopped moving at 1.0% growth, while its units ran 21.4% on a healthy sample — the clearest split in the group.

Newmarket: the inner-north all-rounder

Five kilometres from the CBD, on the Ferny Grove train line, with Newmarket Village for shops and cinemas. Newmarket does most things well, which is exactly why it costs what it costs.

Houses sit at a $1,625,000 median, up 4.3%, with 67 sales over the year and a 29-day median time on market — the slowest of the five, which tells you buyers here are taking their time rather than panic-bidding. Units are $875,000, up 19.5%. The rental yield gap is stark: 2.5% on houses against 4.1% on units.

Newmarket State School and St Ambrose's Primary are both in the suburb. Catchments change, so check the current boundary rather than the agent's brochure.

Who it suits: professionals and families who want a train line, a shopping precinct and a short commute, and who are not trying to buy land.

The catch: blocks are small and getting smaller. If you want a yard, your money goes further one suburb out.

Grange: the northside's premium address, and it prices like one

Six kilometres out, big pre-war Queenslanders, wide streets, Grange Forest Park and the Kedron Brook Bikeway. Grange has the best housing stock on this list and the market knows it.

The median house is $1,885,000, up 3.7% across 62 sales, with a 26-day time on market. That growth number matters: at nearly $1.9 million you are buying an established address, not a run-up. The unit median reads $1,175,000, up 55.6% — but that is eleven sales in a year. Treat it as a signal that a few good apartments traded, not as a suburb-wide movement.

Who it suits: buyers who want land, character and a settled street, and who have the budget to compete for it.

The catch: Grange has no train station of its own. You are on buses, or walking to Wilston or Newmarket to catch one. For some buyers that is nothing; for a daily commuter it is the whole decision. Our Wilston suburb guide covers the station suburb next door in more detail.

Alderley: where the houses paused and the units did not

Also six kilometres from the city, with its own station on the Ferny Grove line and Banks Street Reserve for green space. Alderley has quietly become the most interesting market of the five, because its two halves are doing opposite things.

Houses are $1,655,000, up 1.0% — the flattest year of any suburb here, on 59 sales at 23 days to sell. Units are $857,500, up 21.4%, and that figure sits on 60 sales, so unlike Grange it is a real sample.

Read together: house prices have taken a breather after a hard run, while buyers priced out of houses have pushed into the unit and townhouse stock. 1,362 buyers were tracked as interested in Alderley houses over the period, so the demand has not gone anywhere.

Who it suits: unit and townhouse buyers chasing the strongest genuine growth on this list, and house buyers who would rather enter during a flat patch than a hot one.

The catch: a lot of the older housing needs work, and renovation quotes in Brisbane have not come back down.

Enoggera: the fastest market of the five

Seven kilometres out, on the train line, with Hillbrook Anglican School and Enoggera State School nearby. Enoggera is where this list gets urgent.

Houses are $1,500,000, up 12.8% — the strongest house growth of the five — and they sell in a median of eighteen days. Units are $900,000, up 25.3%. House yield is 3.1%, equal best here with Mitchelton. Buyer interest was the second-highest of the group at 1,729.

Eighteen days is the number to pay attention to. It means inspecting on Saturday and deciding by the following week, with finance and building inspections already lined up. This is the suburb on the list where an unprepared buyer loses the house.

Who it suits: buyers who are organised, pre-approved and able to move inside a fortnight.

The catch: the army barracks shape parts of the suburb, and it does not suit everyone. Walk the specific street at the specific time of day before you commit.

Mitchelton: the entry point, and the most choice

Nine kilometres from the CBD, with the Blackwood Street precinct, a train station and more housing stock changing hands than the rest of this list combined.

The median house is $1,341,137, up 9.0% — the cheapest entry of the five — across 120 sales, roughly double any other suburb here. Units are $840,000, down 3.2%, the only faller in the group. Yields are 3.1% on houses and 4.0% on units, and 2,136 buyers were tracked as interested, the highest of the five.

Volume is the real story. When 120 houses trade in a year, there is nearly always something on, which means you are not forced to overpay for the only listing in your bracket. That is a negotiating position, and it is worth more than most buyers realise.

Who it suits: buyers who want a house on the northside under the $1.5 million mark, and anyone who would rather have options than scarcity.

The catch: the unit market is going backwards, and continued townhouse development is part of why. If you are buying units here, buy the building, not the suburb.

How the five northern suburbs compare

• Cheapest way in: Mitchelton, at a $1,341,137 house median
• Most choice: Mitchelton again, on 120 house sales against 54 to 67 everywhere else
• Strongest house growth: Enoggera, up 12.8%
• Strongest credible unit growth: Alderley, up 21.4% on 60 sales
• Best house yield: Enoggera and Mitchelton, both 3.1%
• Land and character: Grange, and you will pay about $544,000 more than Mitchelton for it
• Move the fastest: Enoggera, where the median house is gone in eighteen days

Where we have been buying in Brisbane's north

We buy across this part of the city regularly. Recent purchases for clients include Alderley twice and Mitchelton, plus Kedron, Wooloowin, Northgate, Wavell Heights, Chermside, Nudgee and Hendra in the wider northern suburbs.

That spread is deliberate. Two buyers with the same budget and the same brief often end up in different suburbs, because the right answer depends on how fast they can move, whether they need a station, and whether they are buying to live in or to hold. Working out which of those constraints is actually binding is most of the job. Our buyers agent services page sets out how we do it, and the process covers what the search looks like week to week.

Northside or southside?

The northside generally buys you a train line, established character housing and shorter commutes, at a price. South of the river tends to buy you more land for the money and a different growth profile. If you are still weighing up the two halves of the city, we have written the same breakdown for the other side: the top five suburbs on Brisbane's southside.

Buying in the northern suburbs of QLD: what to check before you bid

Four things catch buyers out in this pocket specifically.

• School catchments. Every suburb here markets its schools. Catchments are drawn by the Queensland Government, they change, and a street can sit outside the boundary its neighbours are inside. Check the official catchment map for the exact address, not the suburb.
• Kedron Brook. The brook runs through or beside Grange, Alderley, Enoggera and Mitchelton. Parts of these suburbs flood and parts do not, and the difference can be one street. Pull Brisbane City Council's flood report for the property before you make an offer.
• Character overlays. Much of the housing in Grange, Newmarket and Alderley is pre-1947, which in Brisbane usually means a character protection applies. If your plan involves demolishing, raising or significantly altering the house, confirm what you are allowed to do before you buy, not after.
• Thin unit samples. Grange recorded eleven unit sales in twelve months. Any percentage built on a number that small will swing wildly year to year. For suburbs like that, look at the individual building and its comparable sales rather than the suburb median.

Brisbane's north is not one market. It is a premium pocket, a fast one, a flat one and a high-volume one sitting within a few kilometres of each other, and the figures above are the start of telling them apart rather than the end of it. If you want the read on a specific street or building, that is what we do.