Do Apartments on Main Roads Grow Less in Value? We Analysed 120,463 Sales

A cheaper apartment on a busy road can be tempting. Traffic and noise are things you can check at an inspection; the effect on resale growth is harder to judge.

We analysed 120,463 sold units across six Australian capitals. Units with a main-road address grew 0.40 percentage points less per year in the median comparison within the same suburb. Highways showed the largest gap. Units close to a main road with a side-street address showed a much weaker pattern.

Units near main roads recorded lower growth

Across the full sample, units within 30 metres of a main road recorded median annual growth of 2.27%. Units more than 400 metres away recorded 4.45%. Growth increased through every distance band between them.

That leaves a gap of about 2.2 percentage points a year, but the two groups include units in different suburbs.

Main-road units cluster in dense, central suburbs where apartment growth was lower across the suburb. Comparing them with units further from a road in other suburbs exaggerates the apparent road effect.

The gap shrinks within the same suburb

We compared units within 30 metres of a main road with units more than 150 metres away in the same suburb, then took the median growth difference across suburbs.

The gap narrowed to 0.52 percentage points a year across 91 suburbs. Main-road units grew more slowly in 74% of them. Much of the raw gap disappeared, but a smaller difference remained across most suburbs.

We also matched units by building-density category within each suburb. The median gap was 0.61 percentage points a year across 108 groups, with a negative difference in 66%. Bigger, denser blocks do not appear to explain the whole result, although matching density still leaves other differences between properties.

These are differences in annual growth, measured in percentage points. They do not establish how much less a main-road unit should cost to buy.

The address matters as well as the distance

Across the unit research sample, 18.2% sat within 30 metres of a main road. We then separated units by both their distance from the road and the road named in their address.

The table combines suburbs, so we also compared these groups within each suburb.

Units with a main-road address set back more than 30 metres showed a median gap of 0.38 percentage points a year across 243 suburbs. The difference was negative in 65%.

For units within 30 metres of a main road with a side-street address, the gap was 0.16 percentage points a year across 113 suburbs. They grew more slowly in 55% of suburbs, so the result was much less consistent.

We read this as a sign that buyers may price the address as well as the physical exposure to traffic.

A highway address can put buyers off even when the building sits back from the road. A nearby unit with a side-street entrance and address may escape much of that association. We have not measured buyer behaviour directly, so this remains an explanation for the pattern.

Along parts of Melbourne's Nepean Highway, service lanes separate homes from through traffic. A highway address alone does not tell you whether a unit faces those lanes or the main carriageway.

At an inspection, check which way the living room faces and whether the entrance opens onto the busy road or a side street.

Highways and motorways show different results

We compared units whose address names each road class with units in the same suburb whose address names no main road.

Highways and major arterials, classified as "trunk" roads, showed the largest median growth gap: 0.67 percentage points a year. The difference was negative in 72% of the 128 suburbs compared.

Primary roads had a smaller gap. For secondary roads, it was smaller again and less consistent.

The motorway median was negative, but only 50% of the 28 suburbs showed lower growth. That small sample did not show a consistent gap across suburbs.

The way a road meets the neighbourhood may help explain this. Motorways are generally walled and grade-separated, with no direct driveways or frontage. Arterials bring traffic lights, buses, trucks and cars turning across the footpath.

What about houses?

Houses showed the same smooth raw distance pattern. Median annual growth rose from 6.24% within 30 metres to 8.02% beyond 400 metres, a raw gap of about 1.8 percentage points.

Within the same suburb, the gap fell to 0.18 percentage points a year across 76 suburbs. It was negative in only 59%.

The evidence for houses is weak and inconsistent. It does not support applying the unit findings wholesale to houses, townhouses or villas. A busy road can still affect how a house feels to live in, but we found much less evidence of a consistent growth penalty.

A 10-year compounding example

For a dollar comparison, we applied the reported growth gaps to a $600,000 starting price over 10 years. The calculation assumes the same growth rate every year; it is not a forecast.

A $600,000 unit growing at 3.32% a year for 10 years ends at about $831,800. At 0.40 percentage points less each year, or 2.92%, it ends at about $800,100 - roughly $32,000 less.

Applying the highway comparison of 0.67 percentage points less gives annual growth of 2.65% and an ending value of about $779,400 - roughly $52,000 less.

The examples assume steady compounding. They do not estimate a property's future sale price, total investment return or the purchase discount needed to make the trade-off worthwhile.

Paying less upfront may compensate for some disadvantages. To judge that, you need the asking price and suitable local alternatives.

What this means if you're buying

For a unit you're considering, check how much traffic reaches the rooms you'll use and what similar properties nearby cost.

• Check the actual road class. A street suffix tells you little about traffic: plenty of Roads are quiet, and plenty of Streets are arterials.
• Inspect the frontage and entrance. Look at service lanes, setbacks, side-street access and where the unit sits within the building.
• Visit when traffic is active. Listen inside the living areas and bedrooms, and check the balcony and pedestrian access.
• Compare similar units within the suburb, including their building-density categories, before putting a price difference down to the road.
• Consider how the address will read to a future buyer. A unit may feel quiet in person while its highway address shapes the first impression.
• Assess the building condition, layout and purchase price. The median growth gap cannot tell you whether an individual unit is a good buy.

What we can't tell you

We cannot prove that the road caused slower growth. Same-suburb comparisons remove much of the location difference and suburb trend, and the density comparison accounts for building-density differences. We did not control for age, build quality or owner-occupier mix. Main-road blocks may differ on those measures, which could explain part of the remaining gap.

The result is also a median across suburbs. In the address-based comparison, a third of suburbs showed no penalty or the reverse.

Coverage is limited to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. It excludes Hobart, Darwin, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong, Geelong and regional areas. Repeat sales require a property to have sold twice, so brand-new buildings are under-represented.

How PropRadar uses the finding

PropRadar's investment score now checks whether a property's address is on a main road and applies a small adjustment by road class.

The adjustment is largest for highways, smaller for arterials and sub-arterials, and absent for motorways. Houses and townhouses receive a smaller flat adjustment because the evidence is weaker.

We used to go off the street suffix ("Rd", "Hwy"), which turned out to tell us almost nothing - plenty of Roads are quiet. The score now looks up the actual road.

FAQ

Keep reading: houses vs units, how we backtested the investment score, and methodology.

Data note: Analysis run on 10 October 2026 using recorded repeat sales in PropRadar's database across six capital-city areas. Reported groups are subsets of the research samples. Growth gaps are historical median differences, not forecasts. Road classifications © OpenStreetMap contributors.

This information is general advice only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Property purchase and sale decisions carry real financial risk. Before acting on this data, consider your personal circumstances and consult a licensed financial adviser or real-estate professional.