The Greens have shifted their election focus away from their traditional heartland in Melbourne's inner-north to the moneyed inner east as the party hunts for a second lower house seat in Victoria at the coming federal election.

Three seats to the south and east of the Yarra – Kooyong, Higgins and Macnamara – have emerged as the key targets the party believes it can win in May.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale with the party's candidate for Macnamara (previously Melbourne Ports) Steph Hodgins-May. Credit:Simon Schluter

But Greens leader Richard Di Natale conceded on Monday, as he geared up for the election campaign, that his party also faces a "tough fight" to maintain their nine Senate seats.

The focus south of the Yarra is a strategic shift from the 2016 election when Greens targeted and almost captured the inner north electorates of Batman and Wills.