Suburb overview
Booval is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Brisbane, Australia, with a population of approximately 2,723, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 28 km from the Brisbane CBD, Booval is a outer metro area in Queensland. The median household income is $51,688 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
4304
Postcode for Booval, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
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Population
2,723
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$495/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (CC BY 4.0).
Distance to CBD
28 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,300/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
57% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why people like living in Booval
- Family-friendly fringe location — around 28 km from Brisbane.
- Newer estates with modern homes and family-sized blocks.
Who Booval suits
Pros and cons
Pros
- Rent sits within an affordable share of local incomes, supporting tenant demand.
- Mortgage costs are lower than the Queensland median, improving cash-flow margins.
- Affordable entry point compared with inner-city suburbs.
Cons
- Traffic can build during peak hours, especially on arterial roads.
- Prices may rise further as demand continues.
Investment insight
Booval is a smaller community of 2,723 — about 50% of the Queensland suburb median (5,474) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. Booval's median household income of $51,688/year is 43% below the Queensland suburb median ($90,298) — this is an affordability play where returns lean on yield and patient capital growth rather than demographic premium. Median rent of $495/week (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)) equates to roughly $2,145/month — about 165% of the $1,300/month median mortgage repayment recorded at the 2021 Census. On those figures rental income covers most or all of the recorded repayment, but repayments on new loans have risen with interest rates since 2021, so re-run the coverage at today's rates before treating this as a cash-flow suburb. At 28 km from Brisbane, Booval is an outer-metro location where buyers are typically trading commute time for floor space and a lower entry price. Only 57% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 77% state median), so this is a unit-heavy market where body-corporate decisions and strata supply meaningfully shape investor returns.
Investment tip
Outer-metro suburbs reward careful property selection — aim for homes near infrastructure rather than generic house-and-land packages. At the 2021 Census, local rents consumed roughly 27% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Booval vs Queensland median
How Booval stacks up against the median of all Queensland suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Booval sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Booval | QLD median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 2,723 | 5,474 | -50% |
| Median household income | $51,688/yr | $90,298/yr | -43% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $265 | $385 | -31% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,300 | $1,733 | -25% |
| Distance to CBD | 28 km | 62 km | -55% |
| Separate houses | 57% | 77% | -20pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Booval — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 2,723 residents — 50% of the QLD suburb median (5,474).
- Purchasing power: median household income $51,688/year (-43% vs Queensland suburb median of $90,298).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $265/week rent (≈ $1,148/month) covered ~88% of the $1,300/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 28 km straight-line from Brisbane (state suburb median 62 km).
- Dwelling mix: 57% separate houses — mixed market (vs 77% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$130/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,300/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 27% of the median household income is spent on rent — within normal range.
Investment strategy
Limited buy-and-hold upside: a small population of 2,723 means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Queensland market over full cycles.
Strong rental coverage at the 2021 Census: $265/week (~$1,148/month) covered 88% of the $1,300/month median mortgage, a shortfall of just $152/month. Both rents and repayments have moved since 2021 — verify current figures, though this suburb has historically leaned cash-flow-friendly.
Only 57% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 77% QLD median) — this is a unit and townhouse market, where cosmetic flips struggle against body-corporate restrictions, thinner after-reno uplift and competing new supply.
Risk factors
- Interest-rate sensitivity: the $1,300/month median mortgage in Booval means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $130/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Income vulnerability: household incomes in Booval are 43% below the Queensland median ($51,688 vs $90,298), which tends to compress rent growth and increases exposure to local unemployment shocks.
- Liquidity risk: with 2,723 residents, Booval has a thinner pool of buyers and tenants than larger suburbs. Expect longer days-on-market on resale and budget for potential vacancy gaps between tenancies.
- Booval is 28 km from the CBD — not close enough to benefit from the inner-ring pricing halo, so growth depends more heavily on local infrastructure decisions and the wider Queensland market cycle.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Booval regardless of local market conditions.
Run the numbers on a Booval property
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Start your journey near Booval →2026 outlook
Capital-growth expectations for Booval are modest for 2026 — incomes 43% below the QLD median of $90,298 and a population of 2,723 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~88% of the typical mortgage ($1,148/month rent vs $1,300/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Booval is cautious heading into the second half of 2026, based on its income, rent and mortgage profile relative to the Queensland median.
Frequently asked questions
Is Booval a good suburb for investment?
Whether Booval suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 2,723, a median household income of $51,688/year and median weekly rent of $265. Weigh those against your goal — cash flow, capital growth, or a value-add renovation — each of which we break down with suburb-specific ABS numbers elsewhere on this page.
What drives property demand in Booval?
The main demand drivers in Booval are a median household income of $51,688/year, a dwelling mix that is 57% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Booval?
Booval has a usual resident population of approximately 2,723, compared with a Queensland suburb median of 5,474 — 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.
How far is Booval from the Brisbane CBD?
Booval sits 28 km straight-line from the Brisbane CBD. This is an outer-metro location; local employment and infrastructure announcements tend to move prices more than CBD connectivity alone.
What is the median rent in Booval?
The median weekly rent in Booval is $495 (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)), equating to approximately $25,740/year in gross rental income. Confirm against current listings on realestate.com.au and Domain before making an offer.
What is the typical mortgage repayment in Booval?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Booval is $1,300, or approximately $15,600/year (vs $1,733/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.
Is Booval cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $265 works out to $1,148/month, covering 88% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,300/month. That leaves a $152/month shortfall (around $1,824/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.
What are the main risks of investing in Booval?
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (2,723 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,300 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($51,688 vs $90,298 state median), the broader Queensland market cycle. Each of these is covered in the Risk Factors section above with suburb-specific numbers rather than generic warnings.
How we built this Booval profile
The population figure on this page comes from the ABS 2021 Census. The postcode comes from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. The dwelling mix is from the ABS 2021 Census. The median household income is the ABS 2021 Census median weekly household income, annualised. Distance to the CBD is calculated from the suburb's ABS centroid. The Census median rent and mortgage figures are 2021 figures and are labelled as such wherever they appear — they are five years old and have moved substantially since. The current median weekly rent in Key indicators is a genuine recent figure from Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (Mar 2026), published under a Creative Commons licence and dated on the page. We do not publish an investment score or school/park counts for this suburb. See our methodology and data sources for exactly what's measured and what's estimated.