Suburb overview
Fernvale is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Brisbane, Australia, with a population of approximately 3,629, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 36 km from the Brisbane CBD, Fernvale is a outer metro area in Queensland. The median household income is $92,092 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
4306
Postcode for Fernvale, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
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Population
3,629
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$645/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (CC BY 4.0).
Distance to CBD
36 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,630/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
93% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why people like living in Fernvale
- Family-friendly fringe location — around 36 km from Brisbane.
- Predominantly separate houses (93%) — suburban lifestyle with more land.
- Newer estates with modern homes and family-sized blocks.
Who Fernvale 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
- Long distance to the CBD (36 km) — plan for commute time or local employment.
- New-estate oversupply risk — many similar homes can compete for the same buyers.
Investment insight
Fernvale is a smaller community of 3,629 — about 66% of the Queensland suburb median (5,474) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. At $92,092/year, household income in Fernvale is within 2% of the Queensland median ($90,298), placing the suburb firmly in the state's mainstream demographic band. Median rent of $645/week (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)) equates to roughly $2,795/month — about 171% of the $1,630/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 36 km from Brisbane, Fernvale is an outer-metro location where buyers are typically trading commute time for floor space and a lower entry price. Separate houses make up 93% of dwellings — 16 percentage points above the Queensland median of 77% — pointing to a family-oriented, land-rich market where value is concentrated in the underlying block.
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 20% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Fernvale vs Queensland median
How Fernvale stacks up against the median of all Queensland suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Fernvale sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Fernvale | QLD median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 3,629 | 5,474 | -34% |
| Median household income | $92,092/yr | $90,298/yr | +2% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $350 | $385 | -9% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,630 | $1,733 | -6% |
| Distance to CBD | 36 km | 62 km | -42% |
| Separate houses | 93% | 77% | +16pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Fernvale — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 3,629 residents — 66% of the QLD suburb median (5,474).
- Purchasing power: median household income $92,092/year (+2% vs Queensland suburb median of $90,298).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $350/week rent (≈ $1,517/month) covered ~93% of the $1,630/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 36 km straight-line from Brisbane (state suburb median 62 km).
- Dwelling mix: 93% separate houses — house-dominant market (vs 77% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$163/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,630/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 20% of the median household income is spent on rent — comfortably affordable.
Investment strategy
Moderate buy-and-hold potential: Fernvale's 3,629-person market and $92,092 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: $350/week (~$1,517/month) covered 93% of the $1,630/month median mortgage, a shortfall of just $113/month. Both rents and repayments have moved since 2021 — verify current figures, though this suburb has historically leaned cash-flow-friendly.
With 93% houses in a 3,629-person market, renovation margins depend on individual street and aspect rather than any suburb-wide story — do comparable-sales analysis before committing capital.
Risk factors
- Interest-rate sensitivity: the $1,630/month median mortgage in Fernvale means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $163/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Liquidity risk: with 3,629 residents, Fernvale 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.
- Fernvale is 36 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.
- House-dominant stock: 93% of dwellings are separate houses, so value is concentrated in land — weather events, insurance repricing and land-tax changes hit investors here more directly than in a unit-heavy suburb.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Fernvale regardless of local market conditions.
Run the numbers on a Fernvale property
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Start your journey near Fernvale →2026 outlook
Capital-growth expectations for Fernvale are modest for 2026 — incomes close to the QLD median of $90,298 and a population of 3,629 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~93% of the typical mortgage ($1,517/month rent vs $1,630/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Fernvale is balanced heading into the second half of 2026, based on its income, rent and mortgage profile relative to the Queensland median.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fernvale a good suburb for investment?
Whether Fernvale suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 3,629, a median household income of $92,092/year and median weekly rent of $350. 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 Fernvale?
The main demand drivers in Fernvale are an above-state-median household income of $92,092/year, a dwelling mix that is 93% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Fernvale?
Fernvale has a usual resident population of approximately 3,629, 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 Fernvale from the Brisbane CBD?
Fernvale sits 36 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 Fernvale?
The median weekly rent in Fernvale is $645 (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)), equating to approximately $33,540/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 Fernvale?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Fernvale is $1,630, or approximately $19,560/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 Fernvale cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $350 works out to $1,517/month, covering 93% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,630/month. That leaves a $113/month shortfall (around $1,356/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 Fernvale?
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (3,629 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,630 median mortgage, 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 Fernvale 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.