Mortgage broker in Craigieburn

Postcode

3064

Council

City of Hume

Distance from CBD

Approx. 25km

Major estates

Highlands

Why Craigieburn is different from the rest of the corridor

Craigieburn is roughly 25km north of the CBD in the City of Hume, and it has been developing for considerably longer than Mickleham, Kalkallo or Donnybrook.

That maturity changes the lending picture. Craigieburn has:

• Established resale housing, not only new land releases
• A train station on the Craigieburn line, and a major shopping centre
• Homeowners years into their loans, which means an active refinancing market
• Owners with real equity, which means upsizing and investment conversations
• Comparable sales history, which makes valuations more predictable

Further north, in Kalkallo or Donnybrook, most conversations are about a first purchase, often of land. In Craigieburn, the mix is much broader.

Buying established

The straightforward case, and the reason Craigieburn suits people who need somewhere to live now rather than in two years.

What you get: certainty. You see the actual house, settlement is typically 30 to 90 days, there is no construction risk, no titling delay, and no gap between approval and settlement long enough for your circumstances to change.

What you give up: the First Home Owner Grant, which applies only to new homes. That is a real cost of buying established and worth counting.

Established purchases here are also more predictable at valuation. There is genuine comparable sales data, which means fewer surprises than in a new release.

Building in Craigieburn

New land releases continue in and around Craigieburn, and the mechanics are the same as elsewhere in the corridor — two-part contracts, progressive drawdowns, titling delays, valuation risk.

The full picture is on building and house and land finance, and the specific timing risks are covered on the Mickleham page, which apply equally here.

Refinancing — the biggest opportunity in Craigieburn

Because so many Craigieburn homes were bought or built five to fifteen years ago, this is where most of the untapped value sits.

The LVR point specifically. A lot of people in this corridor bought with a small deposit and paid lenders mortgage insurance. If the property has grown in value since, and the loan has come down through repayments, the loan-to-value ratio may now be well under 80%.

That is not a small thing. Below 80% you are in a different pricing tier, LMI is no longer a factor on a refinance, and the range of lenders willing to compete for the loan widens considerably.

Most people never check, because nothing prompts them to.

Worth reviewing if:

• You have not looked at your loan in three or more years
• Your fixed rate is ending
• Your property has grown in value
• You want to access equity for renovation, an investment purchase, or to consolidate other debt
• Your circumstances have changed — a second income, a promotion, or the reverse

The refinancing page covers the break-even maths, including the costs people forget to count.

Upsizing within the corridor

A common Craigieburn pattern: bought a first home five to ten years ago, family has grown, now looking for something larger — often further north into Mickleham or Kalkallo where newer and larger stock is available at comparable prices.

The hard part is rarely the loan. It is the sequencing — whether to sell first or buy first, and whether bridging finance makes sense. That decision deserves proper thought, and it is covered on buying your next home.

One point worth stating: equity is not borrowing capacity. A large deposit from selling your current home does not increase what a lender will lend against your income. If you are moving up in price, the constraint is usually income, not deposit.

Investment lending

Craigieburn attracts investors for understandable reasons — established rental demand, lower entry prices than inner suburbs, transport access.

The lending questions that actually matter:

• How much rent will the lender count? Most shade it to allow for vacancy and costs — often to around 70 to 80%. That shading surprises people
• How is the loan structured? Keeping investment borrowings separate from your home loan matters for your tax position, and it is much easier to set up correctly than to fix later
• Are the properties cross-collateralised? If one lender holds security over both your home and the investment, selling or refinancing either becomes considerably more complicated

Covered in detail on investment property loans.

Local practicalities

I am based in Mickleham, a few minutes up the road. Meetings happen in person locally, or by phone and video where that is easier.

If you are weighing established against building, or you have not looked at a loan you took out years ago, those are both conversations worth having before you make a decision rather than after.

Craigieburn by the numbers

Prices are from the Valuer-General’s sales records, up to the March quarter 2026. The household picture is from the 2021 Census. Every figure is labelled with its period, and none of it is a forecast.

Median house price

$730,000

March quarter 2026, from 270 sales

Up 7.9% on the March quarter 2025

There is no vacant land figure for Craigieburn: only three vacant lots sold in the March quarter 2026, too few for a median to mean much.

• Houses

What buying at the median involves

At the March quarter 2026 median of $730,000, for a home you will live in.

Deposit	Cash deposit	Loan	Indicative LMI
5%	$36,500	$693,500	$21,500 – $32,600
10%	$73,000	$657,000	$11,800 – $21,000
20%	$146,000	$584,000	None

Stamp duty — first home buyer

$33,687

Stamp duty — everyone else

$38,870

Duty is worked out with the same tables as our stamp duty calculator. LMI is an indicative range — insurers do not publish their pricing — and some occupations avoid it entirely. On a separate land-and-build contract, duty is generally charged on the land rather than the finished home, so it is often much lower than this. Work out the full cash you would need →

Craigieburn at the 2021 Census

When the 2021 Census counted Craigieburn, 65,178 people lived there. The suburb has grown considerably since, so read what follows as a picture of who was living and buying here in 2021 — not a measure of Craigieburn now.

In 2021, 53.6% of homes were being paid off — about 1.5 times the Victorian rate — and 22.1% of mortgage holders were repaying more than 30% of household income, against 15.5% statewide. That was before the interest rate rises that began in 2022.

• Homes owned with a mortgage

  53.6%

  Victoria: 36.1%

• Median age

  32

  Victoria: 38

• Families that are couples with children

  61.6%

  Victoria: 45.5%

• Residents under five

  8.7%

  Victoria: 5.8%

• Homes that are separate houses

  89.2%

  Victoria: 73.4%

The Census’s rent, income and repayment figures are left out — dollar amounts date quickly, and a 2021 figure would mislead today. The next Census was taken in August 2026, and the ABS plans to start releasing results in June 2027; this section will be updated then. If your repayments have climbed since you bought, a refinance check takes a few minutes and is often worth more than it sounds.

Sources

• Valuer-General Victoria — Victorian Property Sales Report, March quarter 2026 — January to March 2026, released September 2026. © State of Victoria (Department of Transport and Planning), licensed under CC BY 4.0.
• Valuer-General Victoria — house and vacant land medians by suburb, 2015–2025 — Calendar years 2015 to 2025. © State of Victoria (Department of Transport and Planning), licensed under CC BY 4.0.
• ABS 2021 Census QuickStats — Craigieburn (Suburbs and Localities) — Census night, August 2021. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 Census of Population and Housing, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
• ABS — 2026 Census topics and data release plan — Published November 2025.