Latest figures: booming suburbs in Melbourne

Predictably, Toorak has surged 151 per cent in the past five years and now has a median price of $1.75 million.

However, the monster growth has been in beachside Frankston South, where a 300 per cent price rise in five years - admittedly from one of the lowest bases in town - saw the median jump from about $110,000 to a high of $550,000-plus more than a year later, then settle back in June 2005 to $374,500. Inland Frankston has had to make do with a more modest 113 per cent growth ($260,000), still exceptional for an area hamstrung by a poor image.

[ Latest figures: booming suburbs in Melbourne ]