Haunted Victorian suburbs, towns reveal unexpected property values

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Young Grace at the former Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, also known as the Mayday Hills Mental Hospital, which is believed to be haunted. Picture: Stuart Walmsley.

Spooky histories and ghost sightings are not scaring homebuyers away from Victoria’s most haunted towns and suburbs.

Research from Ray White shows median house prices in about 30 of the state’s haunted locations have uniformly increased across the past three years, since October 2022 to October 2025.

Leading the paranormal pack is Beechworth in Victoria’s north east.

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The town is home to both the former Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, also known as the Mayday Hills Mental Hospital, and the Old Beechworth Gaol.

Built in 1867, the asylum is believed to be home to several spirits and has featured on television shows including Ghost Hunters International.

There’s been reports of unexplained apparitions including a woman crying at the gates, echoes of childrens’ laughter and footsteps, cold spots and shadowy figures moving along the corridors.

And the circa-1860s’ goal’s grim past involved eight executions and more than 40 deaths in custody.

Beechworth’s median house price sits at $842,000, a 13.93 per cent increase across the past three years.

n01dv666 Man (Unknown) Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum at Beechworth was home to an unknown man who entered Victoria's mental health system without a name. He died without an identity and was buried at Beechworth Cemetery in an unmarked grave, on top of a stranger who died 19 years previously.

The old Beechworth Lunatic Asylum closed in 1995.

n01dv666 Man (Unknown) Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum at Beechworth was home to a man an unknown man entered Victoria's mental health system without a name. He died without an without and was buried at Beechworth Cemetery in an unmarked grave, on top of a without who had died 19 years previously. Pictured is a chair used during surgical procedures at Beechworth's Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum.

A chair used during surgical procedures at the asylum.

In Victoria’s Central Highlands region, Ararat is home to two well-known haunted sites: the ex-Aradale Lunatic Asylum and the J Ward, which served as a jail for the criminally insane.

The old asylum, decommissioned in the 1990s, is believed to be haunted by the spirit of a prisoner named Gary Webb, a former employee known as Nurse Kerry and a doctor who died in 1912.

Meanwhile, J Ward is apparently haunted by prisoners who were hanged and buried on-site.

Ararat’s typical house price has grown 8.52 per cent in the past three years to $388,000.

Australia's largest abandoned lunatic asylum Aradale at Ararat has ghost tours. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people died here and many ghosts have been reported.

The Aradale Lunatic Asylum in Ararat where thousands of people died. Picture: Rob Leeson.

The former superintendent’s room at Aradale Lunatic Asylum is one that’s believed to be haunted at the property.

Closer to Melbourne, median house prices in Coburg – home to the notoriously haunted former Pentridge Prison, that has now been developed into a residential and retail precinct – have risen 7.24 per cent to reach $1.212m in October this year.Visitors to the ex-prison have claimed they heard the voice of underworld figure and convicted criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read who was imprisoned there but died in 2013.

In the city’s western suburbs, Lantern Ghost Tours offers tours of the Altona Homestead where a spirit believed to be one of the homestead’s original owners, Sarah Langhorne who passed away in 1871, has reportedly been glimpsed peering out of the windows.

Altona’s median $1.18m house price has increased 6.55 per cent when compared to October 2022.

The ghost of the late crime figure Chopper Read is believed to haunt Pentridge Prison where his ghost can be seen smoking at the doorway of his old abode, cell 16. Picture: David Caird.

Lantern Ghost Tours also takes visitors on trips to the 1870s-era Eynesbury Homestead where reports of mysterious footsteps, disembodied voices, moving objects and a spectral female figure clad in white abound.

Eynesbury’s typical $725,000 house price grew by 6.35 per cent in the past three years.

The Ray White research involved looking into reported ghost sightings at almost 300 locations across Australia and comparing median house prices, with 24 per cent of the sightings occurring at hotels, pubs and restaurants.

Jacqui Travaglia of Lantern Ghost Tours has some unwelcome company in the bathroom of Altona Homestead. n34ht101

Lantern Ghost Tours’ Jacqui Travaglia at Altona Homestead. Picture: Stuart Walmsley.

Ray White Group senior data analyst Atom Go Tian said most of the haunted sites were concentrated to a single property and did not extend beyond its borders to an entire suburb or town.

Mr Go Tian said that one of the most surprising parts of his research was discovering median house prices had increased in most of the nation’s haunted suburbs, since October 2022.

“It doesn’t look like people are leaving these areas – in fact, it seems like they’re more desirable,” he said.

“When a place is haunted it becomes part of its cultural heritage.”

n51mt999 a1 Lantern Ghost Tour at Eynesbury Homestead. Actor and ghost hunter Ross Daniels sheds light on the underworld.

Lantern Ghost Tour actor and ghost hunter Ross Daniels at Eynesbury Homestead. Picture: Dennis Manktelow.

He added that aside from paranormal happenings, usual market forces such as buyer demand, development and location played a big role in median house prices – but that looking at home values through a spooky lens in the lead-up to Halloween was always fascinating.

Mr Go Tian noted most people “don’t have problems living with or alongside these spirits or ghosts”.

“Maybe another factor is just that the majority of the population aren’t able to see ghosts and we’re able to turn a blind eye to this other world going on around us,” he said.

Also getting into the Halloween theme is a family selling their house at 112 Bayview St, Williamstown, with a $2.7m-$2.8m range.

112 Bayview St, Williamstown - for herald sun real estate

The owners installed the pool and spa.

Compton Green managing director Adrian Butera said the owners had decorated their home at Halloween for years.

A photo of the four-bedroom abode adorned with a giant redback spider of the roof, skeletons hanging in the trees and skulls on the fence has been included with the online listing.

“We think it’s really fun and we’re getting into the spirit,” Mr Butera said.

He’s even planning to hand out confectionery at the first open-for-inspection to be held at 11.30am on Saturday, although the Halloween decorations will likely be taken down for the event.

Boo! A skeleton rises out of the garden.

One of the family’s pet dogs stars in the listing photos.

Mr Butera said the owners had renovated the house featuring two living areas, a study, studio above the garage, pool, spa and outdoor entertainers’ area, since they purchased it through him about 15 years ago.

The home’s buyers would most likely be a family wanting to enjoy the foreshore at the end of Bayview St, plus parks and Bayside Prep-12 College across the road, he added.

The home will be auctioned at 2pm on November 29.

The home is close to the beach, Williamstown Juniors Football Club, North Williamstown train station and Williamstown High School.

VICTORIA’S MOST HAUNTED TOWNS AND SUBURBS

Lismore Cemetery

Lismore median house price: $383,000

Bundoora Homestead Art Centre

Bundoora median house price: $1.073m

Princess Theatre

Old Melbourne Gaol

The Hotel Windsor

Golden Monkey

The Mitre Tavern

Melbourne CBD median unit and apartment price: $535,000

The town of Walhalla

Walhalla median house price: $642,000

HM Prison Geelong was built in stages from 1849 to 1864. Visitors have reported being pinched, pushed, having their hair pulled and scratched by an unknown entity.

Aradale Lunatic Asylum and the J Ward

Ararat median house price: $388,000

Beechworth Lunatic Asylum and Old Beechworth Gaol

Beechworth median house price: $842,000

Ballarat Gaol

Ballarat median house price: $673,000

Old Castlemaine Gaol

Castlemaine median house price: $773,000

Pentridge Prison

Coburg median house price: $1.212m