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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Malak is an inner-city suburb of Darwin, Australia, with a population of approximately 3,013, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 10 km from the Darwin CBD, Malak is a inner city area in Northern Territory. The median household income is $87,152 per year.
Moderate income levels in Malak indicate steady rental demand from working households. Close CBD access strengthens tenant appeal and resale value.
Official Australia Post postcode for Malak. 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 Malak on My School →Estimated 1 park 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.
3,013 residents places Malak squarely in the middle of the Northern Territory suburb size distribution (state median 3,057), with market depth comparable to most NT localities. Malak's median household income of $87,152/year is 23% below the Northern Territory suburb median ($113,308) — this is an affordability play where returns lean on yield and patient capital growth rather than demographic premium. Median rent of $301/week (~$1,304/month) covers only 67% of the median mortgage of $1,950/month — the remaining $646/month must be funded from other income, so this suburb tilts toward capital growth rather than yield. At 10 km from the Darwin CBD, Malak sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks.
Inner-city investors should model strata costs and rate rises carefully, since gross yields here are often compressed by higher entry prices. Local rents consume roughly 18% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Malak stacks up against the median of all Northern Territory suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Malak sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Malak | NT median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 3,013 | 3,057 | -1% |
| Median household income | $87,152/yr | $113,308/yr | -23% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $301 | $360 | -16% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $1,950 | $1,950 | 0% |
| Distance to CBD | 10 km | 15 km | -33% |
| Separate houses | 69% | 68% | +1pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Malak — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Limited buy-and-hold upside: household incomes 23% below the NT median ($87,152 vs $113,308) means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Northern Territory market over full cycles.
Moderate rental coverage: rent of $301/week covers 67% of a $1,950/month mortgage, leaving a $646/month gap that an investor bridges with equity, depreciation and tax benefits.
With 69% houses in a 3,013-person market, renovation margins depend on individual street and aspect rather than any suburb-wide story — do comparable-sales analysis before committing capital.
Run the numbers on a Malak property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Malak are modest for 2026 — incomes 23% below the NT median of $113,308 and a population of 3,013 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~67% of the typical mortgage ($1,304/month rent vs $1,950/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. The EquitySight investment score of 70/100 places Malak in the upper-middle tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is constructive heading into the second half of 2026.
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Malak scores 70/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a good rating. That score is driven by a population of 3,013, median household income of $87,152/year and median weekly rent of $301. 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 Malak are proximity to Darwin (10 km), a median household income of $87,152/year, a dwelling mix that is 69% separate houses, roughly 1 schools and 1 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.
Malak has a usual resident population of approximately 3,013, compared with a Northern Territory suburb median of 3,057 — 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.
Malak sits 10 km straight-line from the Darwin CBD. This is inner-ring territory — pricing competes directly with established Darwin employment nodes.
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $301 in Malak, equating to approximately $15,652/year in gross rental income (state median $360/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 Malak is $1,950, or approximately $23,400/year (vs $1,950/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 $301 works out to $1,304/month, covering 67% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,950/month. That leaves a $646/month shortfall (around $7,752/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 (3,013 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,950 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($87,152 vs $113,308 state median), the broader Northern Territory 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.