Suburb overview
Bowen Hills is an inner-city suburb of Brisbane, Australia, with a population of approximately 4,898, making it a boutique locality. Located 3 km from the Brisbane CBD, Bowen Hills is a inner city area in Queensland. The median household income is $80,652 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
4006
Postcode for Bowen Hills, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →
Population
4,898
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$660/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (CC BY 4.0).
Distance to CBD
3 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,614/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
3% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why people like living in Bowen Hills
- Short commute into Brisbane: ~3 km from the CBD.
- High-density unit mix (97% non-house dwellings) — urban, low-maintenance living.
- Cafes, restaurants and nightlife are part of the local fabric.
Who Bowen Hills 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.
- Short distance to the CBD makes commuting straightforward.
Cons
- Traffic can build during peak hours, especially on arterial roads.
- Prices may rise further as demand continues.
Investment insight
4,898 residents places Bowen Hills squarely in the middle of the Queensland suburb size distribution (state median 5,474), with market depth comparable to most QLD localities. Household income of $80,652/year is 11% below the Queensland median of $90,298, typically translating into lower entry prices and a tenant base more sensitive to rent increases. Median rent of $660/week (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)) equates to roughly $2,860/month — about 177% of the $1,614/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 3 km from the Brisbane CBD, Bowen Hills sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 3% 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
Inner-city investors should model strata costs and rate rises carefully, since gross yields here are often compressed by higher entry prices. At the 2021 Census, local rents consumed roughly 25% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Bowen Hills vs Queensland median
How Bowen Hills stacks up against the median of all Queensland suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Bowen Hills sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Bowen Hills | QLD median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 4,898 | 5,474 | -11% |
| Median household income | $80,652/yr | $90,298/yr | -11% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $390 | $385 | +1% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,614 | $1,733 | -7% |
| Distance to CBD | 3 km | 62 km | -95% |
| Separate houses | 3% | 77% | -74pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Bowen Hills — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 4,898 residents — 89% of the QLD suburb median (5,474).
- Purchasing power: median household income $80,652/year (-11% vs Queensland suburb median of $90,298).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $390/week rent (≈ $1,690/month) covered ~105% of the $1,614/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 3 km straight-line from Brisbane (state suburb median 62 km).
- Dwelling mix: 3% separate houses — unit-heavy market (vs 77% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$161/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,614/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 25% of the median household income is spent on rent — within normal range.
Investment strategy
Moderate buy-and-hold potential: Bowen Hills's 4,898-person market and $80,652 median household income work for investors who are selective on street location and property quality rather than counting on a suburb-wide rerating.
Strong rental coverage at the 2021 Census: $390/week (~$1,690/month) covered 105% of the $1,614/month median mortgage, a shortfall of just $0/month. Both rents and repayments have moved since 2021 — verify current figures, though this suburb has historically leaned cash-flow-friendly.
Only 3% 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 $1,614/month median mortgage in Bowen Hills means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $161/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Liquidity risk: with 4,898 residents, Bowen Hills 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.
- Strata exposure: only 3% of dwellings in Bowen Hills are separate houses, so most investment stock is apartments or townhouses subject to body-corporate fees, sinking-fund levies and competing supply from new developments.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Bowen Hills regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Bowen Hills with a 10–15% price pullback scenario before committing capital — returns to date are not a guarantee of future performance.
Run the numbers on a Bowen Hills property
Walk the journey to a place like Bowen Hills
Seven guided stops — government schemes compared for your exact numbers, a real budget, suburb shortlisting and every contract deadline tracked. Free, no signup to start.
Start your journey near Bowen Hills →2026 outlook
Capital-growth expectations for Bowen Hills are modest for 2026 — incomes 11% below the QLD median of $90,298 and a population of 4,898 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~105% of the typical mortgage ($1,690/month rent vs $1,614/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Bowen Hills is constructive heading into the second half of 2026, based on its income, rent and mortgage profile relative to the Queensland median.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bowen Hills a good suburb for investment?
Whether Bowen Hills suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 4,898, a median household income of $80,652/year and median weekly rent of $390. 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 Bowen Hills?
The main demand drivers in Bowen Hills are proximity to Brisbane (3 km), a median household income of $80,652/year, a dwelling mix that is 3% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Bowen Hills?
Bowen Hills has a usual resident population of approximately 4,898, 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 Bowen Hills from the Brisbane CBD?
Bowen Hills sits 3 km straight-line from the Brisbane CBD. This is inner-ring territory — pricing competes directly with established Brisbane employment nodes.
What is the median rent in Bowen Hills?
The median weekly rent in Bowen Hills is $660 (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)), equating to approximately $34,320/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 Bowen Hills?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Bowen Hills is $1,614, or approximately $19,368/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 Bowen Hills cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $390 works out to $1,690/month, covering 105% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,614/month. That means rent exceeds the median repayment by roughly $76/month, so on these numbers Bowen Hills leans cash-flow-positive before accounting for strata, council rates, insurance and maintenance. 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 Bowen Hills?
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (4,898 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,614 median mortgage, a unit-heavy dwelling mix (3% houses) where body-corporate costs and apartment supply affect resale, 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 Bowen Hills 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.