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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Riverwood is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Sydney, Australia, with a population of approximately 12,793, making it a smaller community. Located approximately 17 km from the Sydney CBD, Riverwood is a outer metro area in New South Wales. The median household income is $62,920 per year.
Household earnings in Riverwood are below the state average, which may affect long-term capital growth.
Official Australia Post postcode for Riverwood. 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 3 schools within or near this suburb.
Find schools near Riverwood on My School →Estimated 5 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 12,793 residents, Riverwood is one of New South Wales's more populous suburbs — roughly 2.4× 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. Riverwood's median household income of $62,920/year is 36% 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. Median rent of $300/week (~$1,300/month) covers only 60% of the median mortgage of $2,167/month — the remaining $867/month must be funded from other income, so this suburb tilts toward capital growth rather than yield. 17 km from Sydney places Riverwood 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 35% 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 25% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Riverwood stacks up against the median of all New South Wales suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Riverwood sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Riverwood | NSW median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 12,793 | 5,325 | +140% |
| Median household income | $62,920/yr | $97,552/yr | -36% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $300 | $430 | -30% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,167 | $2,167 | 0% |
| Distance to CBD | 17 km | 45 km | -62% |
| Separate houses | 35% | 76% | -41pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Riverwood — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Limited buy-and-hold upside: household incomes 36% below the NSW median ($62,920 vs $97,552) means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider New South Wales market over full cycles.
Weak cash flow: $300/week rent covers only 60% of the $2,167/month median mortgage — a $867/month gap that must be funded from other income. This suburb is a capital-growth play, not a yield play.
Only 35% 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 Riverwood property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Riverwood are modest for 2026 — incomes 36% below the NSW median of $97,552 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~60% of the typical mortgage ($1,300/month rent vs $2,167/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. The EquitySight investment score of 50/100 places Riverwood in the mid tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is balanced heading into the second half of 2026.
Lived in Riverwood? Help other investors with an honest 100-word review. Sign-in required; all reviews are manually moderated before they appear.
Riverwood scores 50/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a moderate rating. That score is driven by a population of 12,793, median household income of $62,920/year and median weekly rent of $300. 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 Riverwood are proximity to Sydney (17 km), a median household income of $62,920/year, a dwelling mix that is 35% separate houses, roughly 3 schools and 5 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.
Riverwood has a usual resident population of approximately 12,793, 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.
Riverwood sits 17 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 $300 in Riverwood, equating to approximately $15,600/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 Riverwood is $2,167, or approximately $26,004/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 $300 works out to $1,300/month, covering 60% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,167/month. That leaves a $867/month shortfall (around $10,404/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 $2,167 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($62,920 vs $97,552 state median), a unit-heavy dwelling mix (35% houses) where body-corporate costs and apartment supply affect resale, 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.