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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Malabar is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Sydney, Australia, with a population of approximately 4,714, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 11 km from the Sydney CBD, Malabar is a middle ring area in New South Wales. The median household income is $93,080 per year.
Strong household incomes in Malabar underpin solid property demand. Its proximity to the CBD adds a strong location premium.
Official Australia Post postcode for Malabar. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Weekly median rent for occupied homes. Live rental data integration coming soon.
Annual median household income (before tax) across all households.
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Estimated 1 school within or near this suburb.
Find schools near Malabar on My School →Estimated 2 parks and green spaces near this suburb.
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
4,714 residents places Malabar squarely in the middle of the New South Wales suburb size distribution (state median 5,325), with market depth comparable to most NSW localities. At $93,080/year, household income in Malabar is within 5% of the New South Wales median ($97,552), placing the suburb firmly in the state's mainstream demographic band. Weekly rent of $150 covers just 17% of the median $3,900/month mortgage repayment, leaving a $3,250/month gap — investors should only pursue this suburb with a clear capital-growth thesis and sufficient external income to fund the shortfall. 11 km from Sydney places Malabar in the middle commuter belt, close enough for daily trips by car or rail but at a materially lower price point than inner suburbs. Only 57% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 76% state median), so this is a unit-heavy market where body-corporate decisions and strata supply meaningfully shape investor returns.
Middle-ring locations like this one historically reward patient holders — focus on homes near catchment-zone schools and major transport. Local rents consume roughly 8% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Malabar stacks up against the median of all New South Wales suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Malabar sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Malabar | NSW median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 4,714 | 5,325 | -11% |
| Median household income | $93,080/yr | $97,552/yr | -5% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $150 | $430 | -65% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $3,900 | $2,167 | +80% |
| Distance to CBD | 11 km | 45 km | -76% |
| Separate houses | 57% | 76% | -19pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Malabar — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Moderate buy-and-hold potential: Malabar's 4,714-person market and $93,080 median household income work for investors who are selective on street location and property quality rather than counting on a suburb-wide rerating.
Weak cash flow: $150/week rent covers only 17% of the $3,900/month median mortgage — a $3,250/month gap that must be funded from other income. This suburb is a capital-growth play, not a yield play.
Only 57% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 76% NSW median) — this is a unit and townhouse market, where cosmetic flips struggle against body-corporate restrictions, thinner after-reno uplift and competing new supply.
Run the numbers on a Malabar property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Malabar are modest for 2026 — incomes 5% below the NSW median of $97,552 and a population of 4,714 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~17% of the typical mortgage ($650/month rent vs $3,900/month repayment), meaning investors will rely on capital growth rather than yield. The EquitySight investment score of 69/100 places Malabar in the upper-middle tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is balanced heading into the second half of 2026.
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Malabar scores 69/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a good rating. That score is driven by a population of 4,714, median household income of $93,080/year and median weekly rent of $150. Whether it fits your portfolio depends on whether you are targeting cash flow, capital growth, or a value-add renovation — all three are scored with suburb-specific numbers elsewhere on this page.
The main demand drivers in Malabar are proximity to Sydney (11 km), a median household income of $93,080/year, a dwelling mix that is 57% separate houses, roughly 1 schools and 2 parks within the catchment. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand and are the factors we weight most heavily in the suburb's investment score.
Malabar has a usual resident population of approximately 4,714, compared with a New South Wales suburb median of 5,325 — placing it in the lower half of the state's suburbs by size. Population is the clearest proxy for market depth: more residents mean more transactions and typically a shorter average days-on-market on resale.
Malabar sits 11 km straight-line from the Sydney CBD. This is comfortable commuter territory, with reasonable rail and road access to the city.
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $150 in Malabar, equating to approximately $7,800/year in gross rental income (state median $430/week). Market rents have typically drifted above the recorded figure — verify against current listings on realestate.com.au and Domain before making an offer.
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Malabar is $3,900, or approximately $46,800/year (vs $2,167/month state median). Stress-test your own borrowing at rates 1–2 percentage points above today's to make sure you can still service the loan through an RBA tightening cycle.
A median weekly rent of $150 works out to $650/month, covering 17% of the median mortgage repayment of $3,900/month. That leaves a $3,250/month shortfall (around $39,000/year before tax benefits), so a typical owner-occupier-priced property here is negatively geared. Actual cash flow depends on your deposit, loan terms, ownership costs and marginal tax rate — run the full numbers in our rental yield calculator.
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (4,714 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $3,900 median mortgage, the broader New South Wales market cycle. Each of these is covered in the Risk Factors section above with suburb-specific numbers rather than generic warnings.
Every number on this page comes from the ABS 2021 Census of Population and Housing, Australia Post postcode reference data, and OpenStreetMap amenity tiles. The investment score, strategy verdicts, and comparison table are computed deterministically from those inputs — no opinion, no estimation. See our full methodology and the data sources and licences for the formulas we use.