We move a lot of people to Truganina. A lot. And over the past few years, it’s gone from a quiet outer suburb that barely showed up on Google Maps to one of the busiest moving destinations in Melbourne’s west.
That’s not surprising when you look at the numbers. House prices are sitting around $670,000, which still feels achievable compared to what you’d pay closer to the city. Units are even more accessible at around $530,000, and they’re actually growing faster right now — up nearly 9% over the past 12 months. For first home buyers and investors, Truganina makes a lot of sense on paper.
But after years of moving families, couples, and downsizers into the area, we’ve seen the same problems come up again and again. Not deal-breakers necessarily, but things people wish someone had told them before moving day.
Here’s what we’ve learned.
The Roads Are a Work in Progress
This is the big one. Truganina has grown incredibly fast — the population was around 36,000 at the 2021 census, which was a 75% jump from just five years earlier. That’s a huge number of new residents arriving in a short time, and the road network hasn’t always kept pace.
Getting in and out during peak hour can be genuinely frustrating. The main arterials get congested, freeway access can back up, and if you’re on the wrong end of the estate it can add real time to your commute. There’s been new road infrastructure built, but residents have been vocal that some of it has felt like a patch-up job rather than a proper solution.
When we’re doing moves in Truganina, we always book our trucks in early and plan routes carefully. Narrow estate streets, cul-de-sacs, and peak hour traffic all factor into how a move runs. If you’re organising your own move, give yourself more time than you think you’ll need.
Not Everything Promised Is There Yet
New estates come with beautiful display homes, glossy brochures, and big promises about what’s coming. Sometimes those promises take years to arrive. Residents in parts of Truganina have been waiting on local shopping precincts, and some pockets of the suburb still require a drive to Tarneit or Werribee for basic grocery shopping.
That said, the area is genuinely improving. There are schools, medical centres, bus routes, and access to Rockbank Station for the train into the CBD. But if you’re used to having a café or a supermarket five minutes’ walk away, you’ll need to adjust your expectations — at least for a while.
This matters for a move too. When you arrive on moving day, chances are you won’t be ordering UberEats from around the corner. Plan ahead, bring food, and have everything you need with you.
The Houses Are Closer Together Than They Look in Photos
A lot of the housing stock in Truganina comes from newer estates where developers have packed blocks tightly. Some homes look spacious in the listing photos, but once you’re standing in the backyard there’s not a lot of it. Boundary to boundary builds are common, and some streets feel very dense once they’re fully developed.
This creates a genuine challenge on moving day. Getting a truck down a narrow estate street, manoeuvring furniture through tight doorways, and working around parked cars from neighbours is something we deal with regularly in these areas. It’s manageable — we do it all the time — but it adds complexity to the job.
Before you book your removalists, let them know what kind of property you’re moving into. Tell them whether there’s street parking, if there’s a narrow driveway, and whether the truck will need to do multiple trips. A good removalist will ask these questions anyway, but it saves time to bring it up first.
The Commute Is Real
Truganina sits about 22 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. That’s not far in distance, but the commute time can stretch depending on your route, the time of day, and which part of the suburb you’re in.
Most residents are driving to work or catching a bus to a train station rather than walking to public transport. If you’re a household with two workers both needing to commute, it’s worth thinking through how that’ll work practically — and factoring it into which part of the suburb you buy or rent in.
The median household income in Truganina is around $2,120 per week, and the average age group is 30 to 39. It’s a working suburb full of people in similar stages of life, which gives it a real community feel. But most of them are leaving early and coming home tired, which means peak hour is busy.
The Rental Market Is Tight
If you’re renting while you build or search for a place to buy, be ready to move quickly. Rental yields are strong — around 4% for houses and closer to 5% for units — which tells you landlords are doing well, which in turn means there’s solid competition for properties. Median rent is around $530 a week for a house.
We move a lot of renters in the western corridor who are waiting on a build to complete or hunting for a purchase. If that’s you, have your rental search sorted well before your current lease ends.
So Is It Worth Moving To?
We’re not here to tell you where to live — that’s your call. What we can tell you is that plenty of the people we’ve moved to Truganina are genuinely happy there. Affordable housing, a growing community, good access to the western freeway, and real potential for future growth all make it a reasonable choice.
Just go in with your eyes open. The suburb is still catching up to its own growth, and there will be inconveniences along the way. The roads, the limited walkable amenities, the tight estate streets — these are real things, not just gripes from people who didn’t do their research.
And when it’s time to move, get organised. Moves in newer estates out west have their own quirks, and working with removalists who know the area makes a difference.
We do this run regularly. If you’re heading to Truganina — or anywhere across Melbourne’s western suburbs — give us a call.
Removalist On The Run is a removalist company based in Melbourne’s western suburbs. We specialise in local and interstate moves across the west, with experience in new estates, apartment buildings, and everything in between.
