EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Terrigal is a coastal suburb in New South Wales, Australia, with a population of approximately 12,730, making it a smaller community. Located approximately 51 km from the Sydney CBD, Terrigal is a coastal area in New South Wales. The median household income is $106,912 per year.
Terrigal benefits from a high-income resident base, supporting premium property pricing. Coastal lifestyle appeal adds a premium that supports long-term demand.
Official Australia Post postcode for Terrigal. 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 Terrigal 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 12,730 residents, Terrigal 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. Households here earn $106,912/year on average — 10% above the NSW suburb median of $97,552 — a modest premium that supports resilient owner-occupier demand. Median weekly rent of $520 equates to $2,253/month — about 90% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,492/month — meaning rental income covers most of a typical owner's repayment and this is a genuine cash-flow suburb before tax benefits. Terrigal is 51 km from Sydney, so the local market tracks regional employment and lifestyle drivers more than CBD-driven commuter demand. Only 61% 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.
Coastal markets benefit from lifestyle appeal but require a buffer for higher insurance and occasional weather-driven vacancies. Local rents consume roughly 25% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Terrigal stacks up against the median of all New South Wales suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Terrigal sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Terrigal | NSW median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 12,730 | 5,325 | +139% |
| Median household income | $106,912/yr | $97,552/yr | +10% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $520 | $430 | +21% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,492 | $2,167 | +15% |
| Distance to CBD | 51 km | 45 km | +13% |
| Separate houses | 61% | 76% | -15pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Terrigal — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Solid buy-and-hold profile: a population of 12,730 and household income close to the NSW median ($106,912 vs $97,552) give the market enough depth for patient capital growth without the premium entry price of inner suburbs.
Strong rental coverage: $520/week (~$2,253/month) covers 90% of the $2,492/month median mortgage repayment, so the shortfall sits at just $239/month. Investors targeting positive cash flow should shortlist this suburb.
Only 61% 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 Terrigal property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Property values in Terrigal should track the wider New South Wales market through 2026, with the $106,912/year median household income (10% above the $97,552 state median) keeping the suburb firmly mid-pack. Rental coverage runs at ~90% of the typical mortgage ($2,253/month rent vs $2,492/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. The EquitySight investment score of 64/100 places Terrigal in the upper-middle tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is balanced heading into the second half of 2026.
Lived in Terrigal? Help other investors with an honest 100-word review. Sign-in required; all reviews are manually moderated before they appear.
Terrigal scores 64/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a good rating. That score is driven by a population of 12,730, median household income of $106,912/year and median weekly rent of $520. 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 Terrigal are an above-state-median household income of $106,912/year, a dwelling mix that is 61% 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.
Terrigal has a usual resident population of approximately 12,730, 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.
Terrigal sits 51 km straight-line from the Sydney CBD. This is a regional market where CBD distance is only indicative — local industry diversity and commute alternatives matter more.
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $520 in Terrigal, equating to approximately $27,040/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 Terrigal is $2,492, or approximately $29,904/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 $520 works out to $2,253/month, covering 90% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,492/month. That leaves a $239/month shortfall (around $2,868/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 $2,492 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.