Melbourne vs Sydney: Commission Density Compared
Author: Kent Lardner Date: February 2026 Category: Commission Intelligence
Every national real estate group with offices in both cities faces the same allocation question: where do you put your next recruiter, your next office expansion budget, your next training investment — Sydney or Melbourne?
The instinct is usually Sydney. Higher prices, higher commissions, more prestige. But the commission data tells a more complicated story. Over the November 2025 to January 2026 quarter, Melbourne's metro SA4 regions generated an estimated $409 million in total commissions — $37 million more than Sydney's $372 million. Melbourne is the larger commission market.
Sydney, however, generates materially more commission per transaction. And the competitive dynamics in each city — agent density, individual concentration, the distribution of premium versus volume markets — create fundamentally different recruitment environments.
This analysis compares both cities across their full SA4 footprints using the same commission estimation methodology: tiered percentages applied to listing prices, with median-by-bedroom imputation where prices were withheld.
The headline numbers
| Metric | Sydney | Melbourne |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated quarterly commissions | $372.4 million | $409.2 million |
| Active listings | 15,214 | 23,027 |
| Tracked agents | 5,611 | 6,609 |
| SA4 regions | 14 | 8 |
| SA2 areas | 331 | 338 |
| Average commission per listing | $24,479 | $17,772 |
| Average commission per agent | $66,374 | $61,920 |
| Average listings per agent | 2.7 | 3.5 |
The fundamental difference: Melbourne requires 51% more listings to generate a commission pool that is only 10% larger. Sydney's advantage is pricing — every transaction yields more. Melbourne's advantage is volume — there is simply more stock moving through the market.
For a recruitment director, this means the definition of a "good agent" is structurally different in each city. In Sydney, a productive agent is one who wins premium mandates. In Melbourne, a productive agent is one who sustains high transaction throughput.
Sydney's premium tier has no Melbourne equivalent
Eight of Sydney's 14 SA4 regions generate more than $23,000 in estimated commission per listing. Only two Melbourne SA4s — Inner East ($23,913) and Inner South ($23,390) — reach that threshold.
Sydney's Eastern Suburbs leads both cities at $38,398 per listing, followed by the Northern Beaches at $33,582 and North Sydney and Hornsby at $31,090. These are markets where median listing prices range from $1.54 million to $2.30 million, pushing transactions into the higher tiers of the commission model.
Melbourne's premium tier is narrower. Inner East's $23,913 per listing reflects a median listing price of $1.20 million — premium by Melbourne standards, but roughly equivalent to Sydney's mid-market. Inner South sits at $23,390 with a median of $1.10 million.
Below Melbourne's two premium SA4s, the commission-per-listing range drops quickly: Outer East at $18,723, Inner at $17,900, South East at $17,430, North East at $16,827, North West at $16,310, and West at $15,192. Five of Melbourne's eight metro SA4s sit below $18,000 per listing.
The recruitment implication is direct. A Sydney agent who moves to Melbourne — or a Melbourne agent being benchmarked against Sydney peers — is operating in a structurally different earning environment. Comparing raw listing counts between agents in the two cities without adjusting for commission per transaction produces misleading assessments of relative performance.
Melbourne's volume tier dwarfs Sydney's
Melbourne West alone generated 5,262 active listings over the quarter — more than Sydney's three largest SA4 regions combined. Melbourne South East added 4,272, and Melbourne Inner contributed 3,511. Every one of Melbourne's eight SA4 regions generated more than 1,400 listings.
Sydney's highest-volume SA4, South West, recorded 1,752 listings. Only five Sydney SA4s exceeded 1,300 listings. The remaining nine fall between 647 (Ryde) and 1,319 (Blacktown).
This volume disparity reflects Melbourne's broader geographic sprawl and the prevalence of medium-density housing stock across its western and south-eastern growth corridors. For agencies that scale on transaction count — particularly franchise models — Melbourne offers a substantially larger addressable market in raw listing terms.
But volume has a cost. Melbourne West's average commission per listing of $15,192 is the lowest of any SA4 in either city's top tier. An agent needs to handle roughly 2.5 transactions in Melbourne West to match the commission of a single transaction in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.
Agent density: Sydney is tighter, Melbourne has more room
Sydney's average of 2.7 listings per agent is notably lower than Melbourne's 3.5. This means Sydney agents are competing for a thinner pool of available stock. The tightest Sydney markets — Inner West (2.1), City and Inner South (2.2), Ryde (2.3) — have agent-to-listing ratios that suggest significant oversupply of agents relative to available mandates.
Melbourne is less congested. Even its most competitive SA4, Inner East, sits at 2.5 listings per agent. Several Melbourne SA4s offer more attractive ratios: West (4.2), South East (4.1), Outer East (3.7), and North East (3.4). These are markets where agents have more room to build listing volumes without running into the same density of competition.
For incoming agents or groups opening new offices, Melbourne offers structurally more opportunity to build a book of business. The trade-off is that each individual listing generates less commission.
Where the top producers operate
Sydney's top five estimated earners for the quarter are located in South West ($3.23 million), the Eastern Suburbs ($1.82 million), Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury ($1.35 million), the Inner West ($1.14 million), and North Sydney and Hornsby ($927,200).
Melbourne's top five are in South East ($1.31 million), the West ($1.01 million), North West ($678,248), Inner East ($671,920), and Outer East ($647,270).
The gap at the top is substantial. Sydney's leading producer generated an estimated $3.23 million — more than double Melbourne's top figure. Even Sydney's fifth-ranked producer ($927,200) would sit second in Melbourne's rankings.
Two structural factors drive this. First, Sydney's higher median prices mean the same number of transactions produces more commission. Second, Sydney's tighter agent density means the agents who do win mandates tend to accumulate more of them relative to the field — there's more concentration at the top.
Melbourne's top earners are more evenly clustered. The gap between first and fifth is $665,000 — far narrower than Sydney's $2.3 million spread. This suggests that Melbourne's high performers earn consistently but within a more compressed band, while Sydney rewards outlier performance more dramatically.
Two different recruitment strategies
The data supports a clear conclusion: Sydney and Melbourne are not interchangeable recruitment markets, and strategies that work in one often fail in the other.
In Sydney, recruitment is a precision exercise. The target is a smaller number of agents who win mandates in premium markets and generate outsized commissions per transaction. Agent density is high, listings per agent are low, and the commission per listing rewards quality over quantity. The right hire in the Eastern Suburbs or Northern Beaches can add hundreds of thousands in commission per quarter. But there are fewer available agents, they're harder to identify without data, and the competitive dynamics mean poaching carries real relationship costs.
In Melbourne, recruitment is a scale exercise. The target is agents who can sustain high transaction volumes across broader geographies. Listings are plentiful, agent density is more moderate, and the commission structure rewards throughput. An office in Melbourne West or South East needs a team of consistent producers rather than a single star. The economics favour hiring multiple solid performers and giving them room to build, rather than targeting one transformative recruit.
Groups operating in both cities should benchmark agents against their local commission structure, not against each other. An agent generating $500,000 in estimated quarterly commissions in Melbourne West (from roughly 33 transactions at $15,192 each) is operating at a comparable level to a Sydney agent generating $500,000 from 13 transactions in North Sydney. The volume is different. The workload is different. The market fitness required is different.
What happens at SA2 level
The SA4-level comparison provides the strategic frame. But within each SA4, individual SA2 areas vary substantially in commission density, agent rankings, and competitive concentration. Melbourne Inner's $17,900 per listing average conceals significant variation between apartment-heavy SA2s near the CBD and freestanding-home suburbs in the middle ring. Sydney's South West average of $19,738 per listing masks pockets of $30,000-plus commission density in specific SA2s alongside corridors closer to $14,000.
The SA2-level intelligence is where recruitment decisions are actually made — identifying not just which city or region, but which specific suburb cluster offers the best combination of commission opportunity and competitive positioning.
This analysis is based on commission estimates derived from active listing data for the November 2025 to January 2026 quarter. Commissions are modelled using a tiered percentage structure applied to listing prices, with median-by-bedroom imputation where prices were withheld. Data is refreshed weekly.
See both cities on the national map at suburbtrends.com. For full SA2-level breakdowns, agent rankings, and weekly data — Talk to Kent →