Suburb overview
Herston is an inner-city suburb of Brisbane, Australia, with a population of approximately 2,311, making it a boutique locality. Located 2 km from the Brisbane CBD, Herston is a inner city area in Queensland. The median household income is $108,472 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
4006
Postcode for Herston, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →
Population
2,311
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$299/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (CC BY 4.0).
Distance to CBD
2 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$2,300/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
39% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why people like living in Herston
- Short commute into Brisbane: ~2 km from the CBD.
- Cafes, restaurants and nightlife are part of the local fabric.
Who Herston suits
Pros and cons
Pros
- Rent sits within an affordable share of local incomes, supporting tenant demand.
- Short distance to the CBD makes commuting straightforward.
- Lifestyle access to shops, cafes and amenities.
Cons
- Median mortgage sits above the Queensland state median — entry costs are stretched.
- Traffic can build during peak hours, especially on arterial roads.
Investment insight
Herston is a smaller community of 2,311 — about 42% of the Queensland suburb median (5,474) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. Median household income of $108,472/year runs 20% above the Queensland suburb median of $90,298, indicating strong purchasing power and the type of demographic profile that tends to sustain premium property prices through market cycles. Median rent of $299/week (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)) (~$1,296/month) covers only 56% of the $2,300/month median mortgage repayment recorded at the 2021 Census — and repayments on new loans have risen since 2021, so this suburb tilts firmly toward capital growth rather than yield. At 2 km from the Brisbane CBD, Herston sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 39% 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 19% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Herston vs Queensland median
How Herston stacks up against the median of all Queensland suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Herston sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Herston | QLD median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 2,311 | 5,474 | -58% |
| Median household income | $108,472/yr | $90,298/yr | +20% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $400 | $385 | +4% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $2,300 | $1,733 | +33% |
| Distance to CBD | 2 km | 62 km | -97% |
| Separate houses | 39% | 77% | -38pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Herston — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 2,311 residents — 42% of the QLD suburb median (5,474).
- Purchasing power: median household income $108,472/year (+20% vs Queensland suburb median of $90,298).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $400/week rent (≈ $1,733/month) covered ~75% of the $2,300/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 2 km straight-line from Brisbane (state suburb median 62 km).
- Dwelling mix: 39% separate houses — unit-heavy market (vs 77% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$230/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $2,300/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 19% of the median household income is spent on rent — comfortably affordable.
Investment strategy
Strong buy-and-hold fundamentals: household incomes run 20% above the Queensland suburb median ($108,472 vs $90,298), and the 2 km CBD distance keeps this suburb in the primary demand zone. In Queensland, suburbs with this profile have historically clustered in the upper tercile of 10-year capital growth.
Moderate rental coverage at the 2021 Census: rent of $400/week covered 75% of a $2,300/month mortgage, a $567/month gap bridged with equity, depreciation and tax benefits. Re-check with current rents and rates before committing.
Only 39% 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 $2,300/month median mortgage in Herston means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $230/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Liquidity risk: with 2,311 residents, Herston 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 39% of dwellings in Herston 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 Herston regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Herston 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 Herston property
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Start your journey near Herston →2026 outlook
Herston enters 2026 with a demographic tailwind — household incomes 20% above the Queensland suburb median of $90,298 and a population of 2,311 give it the depth and purchasing power to outperform the wider QLD market over the next 12–18 months. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~75% of the typical mortgage ($1,733/month rent vs $2,300/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Herston 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 Herston a good suburb for investment?
Whether Herston suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 2,311, a median household income of $108,472/year and median weekly rent of $400. 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 Herston?
The main demand drivers in Herston are proximity to Brisbane (2 km), an above-state-median household income of $108,472/year, a dwelling mix that is 39% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Herston?
Herston has a usual resident population of approximately 2,311, 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 Herston from the Brisbane CBD?
Herston sits 2 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 Herston?
The median weekly rent in Herston is $299 (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)), equating to approximately $15,548/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 Herston?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Herston is $2,300, or approximately $27,600/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 Herston cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $400 works out to $1,733/month, covering 75% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,300/month. That leaves a $567/month shortfall (around $6,804/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 Herston?
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (2,311 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,300 median mortgage, a unit-heavy dwelling mix (39% 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 Herston 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.