Suburb overview
Rothwell is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Brisbane, Australia, with a population of approximately 7,538, making it a smaller community. Located approximately 29 km from the Brisbane CBD, Rothwell is a middle ring area in Queensland. The median household income is $67,860 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
4022
Postcode for Rothwell, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →
Population
7,538
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$640/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (CC BY 4.0).
Distance to CBD
29 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,676/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
67% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why people like living in Rothwell
- Family-friendly fringe location — around 29 km from Brisbane.
- Established streets, local shops, and schools within the neighbourhood.
Who Rothwell suits
Pros and cons
Pros
- Mortgage costs are lower than the Queensland median, improving cash-flow margins.
- Established middle-ring position between the CBD and the urban fringe.
- Established infrastructure and existing community base.
Cons
- Traffic can build during peak hours, especially on arterial roads.
- Prices may rise further as demand continues.
Investment insight
Rothwell's population of 7,538 sits 38% above the Queensland suburb median of 5,474, giving it a wider tenant and buyer catchment than the average QLD locality. Rothwell's median household income of $67,860/year is 25% 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 $640/week (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)) equates to roughly $2,773/month — about 165% of the $1,676/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 29 km from Brisbane, Rothwell is an outer-metro location where buyers are typically trading commute time for floor space and a lower entry price.
Investment tip
Middle-ring locations like this one historically reward patient holders — focus on homes near catchment-zone schools and major transport. At the 2021 Census, local rents consumed roughly 29% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Rothwell vs Queensland median
How Rothwell stacks up against the median of all Queensland suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Rothwell sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Rothwell | QLD median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 7,538 | 5,474 | +38% |
| Median household income | $67,860/yr | $90,298/yr | -25% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $380 | $385 | -1% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,676 | $1,733 | -3% |
| Distance to CBD | 29 km | 62 km | -53% |
| Separate houses | 67% | 77% | -10pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Rothwell — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 7,538 residents — 138% of the QLD suburb median (5,474).
- Purchasing power: median household income $67,860/year (-25% vs Queensland suburb median of $90,298).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $380/week rent (≈ $1,647/month) covered ~98% of the $1,676/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 29 km straight-line from Brisbane (state suburb median 62 km).
- Dwelling mix: 67% separate houses — mixed market (vs 77% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$168/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,676/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 29% of the median household income is spent on rent — within normal range.
Investment strategy
Limited buy-and-hold upside: household incomes 25% below the QLD median ($67,860 vs $90,298) means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Queensland market over full cycles.
Strong rental coverage at the 2021 Census: $380/week (~$1,647/month) covered 98% of the $1,676/month median mortgage, a shortfall of just $29/month. Both rents and repayments have moved since 2021 — verify current figures, though this suburb has historically leaned cash-flow-friendly.
Only 67% 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 $1,676/month median mortgage in Rothwell means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $168/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Income vulnerability: household incomes in Rothwell are 25% below the Queensland median ($67,860 vs $90,298), which tends to compress rent growth and increases exposure to local unemployment shocks.
- Rothwell is 29 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 Rothwell regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Rothwell 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 Rothwell property
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Start your journey near Rothwell →2026 outlook
Capital-growth expectations for Rothwell are modest for 2026 — incomes 25% below the QLD median of $90,298 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~98% of the typical mortgage ($1,647/month rent vs $1,676/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Rothwell 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 Rothwell a good suburb for investment?
Whether Rothwell suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 7,538, a median household income of $67,860/year and median weekly rent of $380. 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 Rothwell?
The main demand drivers in Rothwell are a median household income of $67,860/year, a dwelling mix that is 67% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Rothwell?
Rothwell has a usual resident population of approximately 7,538, compared with a Queensland suburb median of 5,474 — placing it in the upper 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 Rothwell from the Brisbane CBD?
Rothwell sits 29 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 Rothwell?
The median weekly rent in Rothwell is $640 (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)), equating to approximately $33,280/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 Rothwell?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Rothwell is $1,676, or approximately $20,112/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 Rothwell cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $380 works out to $1,647/month, covering 98% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,676/month. That leaves a $29/month shortfall (around $348/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 Rothwell?
The main risks are interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,676 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($67,860 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 Rothwell 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.