Suburb overview
Stafford is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Brisbane, Australia, with a population of approximately 6,978, making it a smaller community. Located approximately 7 km from the Brisbane CBD, Stafford is a middle ring area in Queensland. The median household income is $91,156 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
4053
Postcode for Stafford, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →
Population
6,978
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
7 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$2,000/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
62% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why people like living in Stafford
- Short commute into Brisbane: ~7 km from the CBD.
- Established streets, local shops, and schools within the neighbourhood.
Who Stafford 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.
- Established middle-ring position between the CBD and the urban fringe.
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
Stafford's population of 6,978 sits 27% above the Queensland suburb median of 5,474, giving it a wider tenant and buyer catchment than the average QLD locality. At $91,156/year, household income in Stafford is within 1% of the Queensland median ($90,298), placing the suburb firmly in the state's mainstream demographic band. Median rent of $660/week (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)) equates to roughly $2,860/month — about 143% of the $2,000/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 7 km from the Brisbane CBD, Stafford sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 62% 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
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 21% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Stafford vs Queensland median
How Stafford stacks up against the median of all Queensland suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Stafford sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Stafford | QLD median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 6,978 | 5,474 | +27% |
| Median household income | $91,156/yr | $90,298/yr | +1% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $360 | $385 | -6% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $2,000 | $1,733 | +15% |
| Distance to CBD | 7 km | 62 km | -89% |
| Separate houses | 62% | 77% | -15pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Stafford — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 6,978 residents — 127% of the QLD suburb median (5,474).
- Purchasing power: median household income $91,156/year (+1% vs Queensland suburb median of $90,298).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $360/week rent (≈ $1,560/month) covered ~78% of the $2,000/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 7 km straight-line from Brisbane (state suburb median 62 km).
- Dwelling mix: 62% separate houses — mixed market (vs 77% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$200/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $2,000/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 21% of the median household income is spent on rent — comfortably affordable.
Investment strategy
Solid buy-and-hold profile: a population of 6,978 and household income close to the QLD median ($91,156 vs $90,298) give the market enough depth for patient capital growth without the premium entry price of inner suburbs.
Moderate rental coverage at the 2021 Census: rent of $360/week covered 78% of a $2,000/month mortgage, a $440/month gap bridged with equity, depreciation and tax benefits. Re-check with current rents and rates before committing.
Only 62% 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 $2,000/month median mortgage in Stafford means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $200/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Stafford regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Stafford 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 Stafford property
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Start your journey near Stafford →2026 outlook
Property values in Stafford should track the wider Queensland market through 2026, with the $91,156/year median household income (close to the $90,298 state median) keeping the suburb firmly mid-pack. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~78% of the typical mortgage ($1,560/month rent vs $2,000/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Stafford 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 Stafford a good suburb for investment?
Whether Stafford suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 6,978, a median household income of $91,156/year and median weekly rent of $360. 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 Stafford?
The main demand drivers in Stafford are proximity to Brisbane (7 km), an above-state-median household income of $91,156/year, a dwelling mix that is 62% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Stafford?
Stafford has a usual resident population of approximately 6,978, 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 Stafford from the Brisbane CBD?
Stafford sits 7 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 Stafford?
The median weekly rent in Stafford 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 Stafford?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Stafford is $2,000, or approximately $24,000/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 Stafford cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $360 works out to $1,560/month, covering 78% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,000/month. That leaves a $440/month shortfall (around $5,280/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 Stafford?
The main risks are interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,000 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 Stafford 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.