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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Merrylands is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Sydney, Australia, with a population of approximately 32,472, making it a sizeable community. Located approximately 21 km from the Sydney CBD, Merrylands is a outer metro area in New South Wales. The median household income is $76,440 per year.
Merrylands has a solid income profile that supports reliable occupancy rates.
Official Australia Post postcode for Merrylands. 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 8 schools within or near this suburb.
Find schools near Merrylands on My School →Estimated 13 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.
With 32,472 residents, Merrylands is one of New South Wales's more populous suburbs — roughly 6.1× the state median of 5,325 — giving it a deep buyer and tenant pool that typically supports higher transaction volumes and shorter average days on market. Merrylands's median household income of $76,440/year is 22% below the New South Wales suburb median ($97,552) — this is an affordability play where returns lean on yield and patient capital growth rather than demographic premium. Rent of $400/week (83% coverage of the $2,100/month median mortgage) leaves a gap of roughly $367/month that a typical investor bridges with negative gearing, depreciation and capital growth. 21 km from Sydney places Merrylands 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 44% 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.
This suburb suits long-term investors due to steady population growth and affordable entry prices. Look for established streets close to schools and shops rather than raw new-estate land. Local rents consume roughly 27% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Merrylands stacks up against the median of all New South Wales suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Merrylands sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Merrylands | NSW median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 32,472 | 5,325 | +510% |
| Median household income | $76,440/yr | $97,552/yr | -22% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $400 | $430 | -7% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,100 | $2,167 | -3% |
| Distance to CBD | 21 km | 45 km | -53% |
| Separate houses | 44% | 76% | -32pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Merrylands — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Limited buy-and-hold upside: household incomes 22% below the NSW median ($76,440 vs $97,552) means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider New South Wales market over full cycles.
Moderate rental coverage: rent of $400/week covers 83% of a $2,100/month mortgage, leaving a $367/month gap that an investor bridges with equity, depreciation and tax benefits.
Only 44% 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 Merrylands property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Merrylands are modest for 2026 — incomes 22% below the NSW median of $97,552 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~83% of the typical mortgage ($1,733/month rent vs $2,100/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. The EquitySight investment score of 61/100 places Merrylands 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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Merrylands scores 61/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a good rating. That score is driven by a population of 32,472, median household income of $76,440/year and median weekly rent of $400. 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 Merrylands are proximity to Sydney (21 km), a median household income of $76,440/year, a dwelling mix that is 44% separate houses, roughly 8 schools and 13 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.
Merrylands has a usual resident population of approximately 32,472, compared with a New South Wales suburb median of 5,325 — placing it in the upper 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.
Merrylands sits 21 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 $400 in Merrylands, equating to approximately $20,800/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 Merrylands is $2,100, or approximately $25,200/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 $400 works out to $1,733/month, covering 83% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,100/month. That leaves a $367/month shortfall (around $4,404/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 interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,100 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($76,440 vs $97,552 state median), 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.