Newly released prices for Melbourne's cemeteries show that the most expensive position at Melbourne General Cemetery is now valued at almost $1.1 million.

That price tag is attached to a family mausoleum room with 24 casket spaces.

Meanwhile, a family grave at Springvale Botanical Cemetery is available for a cool $300,000.

The rising cost of graves is one factor driving the popularity of cremations, which are generally cheaper.

At Werribee Cemetery an "exclusive family alcove" with 10 positions in a mausoleum is expected to reach $271,720 this year.

But many of Melbourne's priciest resting spots have been pre-sold, echoing the difficulty of entering Melbourne's housing market.

Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust spokesman Leigh Funston said prices ranged from about $1000 for interment of cremated remains, to hundreds of thousands of dollars for more elaborate options.

"We have a responsibility as a cemetery trust to upkeep and maintain the cemeteries forever," he said. "We don't draw on the public purse for that."

Melbourne's two metropolitan cemetery trusts are non-profit groups that run more than 20 cemeteries in Victoria. The prices are regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust chief executive Jacqui Briggs-Weatherill said cremations accounted for 57 per cent of services at the trust's cemeteries, which are in Melbourne's west and north.

She said the new prices had increased in line with the Consumer Price Index.

Ms Briggs-Weatherill said the mausoleum interment was a "specialised and unique" option predominantly chosen by Italian Catholics.

She said families who chose mausoleums expected night lighting, marble finishes, personalised memorials and a "high level of maintenance and cleaning".

Melbourne University's School of Historical and Philosophical Studies academic Dr Michael Arnold said mausoleums were a "very mainstream" choice in the US.

But in Australia the vast majority of people who die are cremated, he said.

Many cremation options come with a 25-year lease for the storage of cremated remains. After the 25 years is up families can generally renew the tenure for another 25 years, choose to have the ashes stored "in perpetuity" or remove the remains and make other arrangements.

Australian Funeral Directors Association president John Fowler estimated that cremations now accounted for between 65 per cent and 70 per cent of the market across Victoria.

"Over the past 20 years the trend has definitely gone to cremation," he said.

Mr Fowler said cremation memorials were generally cheaper than burials.

Mr Fowler, general manager of Le Pine Funerals, said cremations also allowed families to scatter ashes in a location that was meaningful to them and their loved one.

Dr Arnold said some people were choosing to memorialise relatives in more unusual ways, including converting cremated ashes into diamonds.

Dr Arnold said "early adopters" in the US and Britain were taking DNA swabs from loved ones when they died to determine the risk of hereditary medical conditions. He said DNA was also being used in jewellery memento pieces.