Suburb Overview
Kensington Gardens is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Adelaide, Australia, with a population of approximately 2,498, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 6 km from the Adelaide CBD, Kensington Gardens is a middle ring area in South Australia. The median household income is $81,692 per year.
Location
Key Indicators
Postcode
5068
Postcode for Kensington Gardens, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →
Population
2,498
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$590/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Jan–Mar 2026, Consumer & Business Services (SA) (CC BY 4.0).
Median household income
$81,692
Annual median household income (before tax) across all households.
Distance to CBD
6 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Sale prices & yield
Median house price
$2,337,500
Median house sale price — as at Q1 2026, Valuer-General (SA) (CC BY 4.0). Figure covers suburb (metro Adelaide).
Indicative gross yield
1.3%
Estimated as current median rent × 52 ÷ current median house price. A guide only — not a guaranteed return; excludes costs, vacancy and buying expenses.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$2,000/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
42% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why People Like Living in Kensington Gardens
- Short commute into Adelaide: ~6 km from the CBD.
- Established streets, local shops, and schools within the neighbourhood.
Who Kensington Gardens 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 infrastructure and existing community base.
Cons
- Median mortgage sits above the South Australia state median — entry costs are stretched.
- Transport options are limited — car dependency is likely.
- Fewer schools inside the suburb itself — verify catchments for neighbouring areas.
Investment Insight
Kensington Gardens is a smaller community of 2,498 — about 68% of the South Australia suburb median (3,699) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. At $81,692/year, household income in Kensington Gardens is within 1% of the South Australia median ($80,964), placing the suburb firmly in the state's mainstream demographic band. Median rent of $590/week (as at Jan–Mar 2026, Consumer & Business Services (SA)) equates to roughly $2,557/month — about 128% 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 6 km from the Adelaide CBD, Kensington Gardens sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 42% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 73% 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 22% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Kensington Gardens vs South Australia Median
How Kensington Gardens stacks up against the median of all South Australia suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Kensington Gardens sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Kensington Gardens | SA median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 2,498 | 3,699 | -32% |
| Median household income | $81,692/yr | $80,964/yr | +1% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $346 | $320 | +8% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $2,000 | $1,616 | +24% |
| Distance to CBD | 6 km | 13 km | -54% |
| Separate houses | 42% | 73% | -31pp |
Investor Checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Kensington Gardens — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 2,498 residents — 68% of the SA suburb median (3,699).
- Purchasing power: median household income $81,692/year (+1% vs South Australia suburb median of $80,964).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $346/week rent (≈ $1,499/month) covered ~75% of the $2,000/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 6 km straight-line from Adelaide (state suburb median 13 km).
- Dwelling mix: 42% separate houses — mixed market (vs 73% 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: 22% of the median household income is spent on rent — comfortably affordable.
Investment Strategy
Limited buy-and-hold upside: a small population of 2,498 means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider South Australia market over full cycles.
Moderate rental coverage at the 2021 Census: rent of $346/week covered 75% of a $2,000/month mortgage, a $501/month gap bridged with equity, depreciation and tax benefits. Re-check with current rents and rates before committing.
Only 42% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 73% SA 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 Kensington Gardens means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $200/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Liquidity risk: with 2,498 residents, Kensington Gardens 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.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Kensington Gardens regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Kensington Gardens with a 10–15% price pullback scenario before committing capital — returns to date are not a guarantee of future performance.
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Start your first-home journey →2026 Outlook
Capital-growth expectations for Kensington Gardens are modest for 2026 — incomes close to the SA median of $80,964 and a population of 2,498 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~75% of the typical mortgage ($1,499/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 Kensington Gardens is balanced heading into the second half of 2026, based on its income, rent and mortgage profile relative to the South Australia median.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kensington Gardens a good suburb for investment?
Whether Kensington Gardens suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 2,498, a median household income of $81,692/year and median weekly rent of $346. 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 Kensington Gardens?
The main demand drivers in Kensington Gardens are proximity to Adelaide (6 km), an above-state-median household income of $81,692/year, a dwelling mix that is 42% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Kensington Gardens?
Kensington Gardens has a usual resident population of approximately 2,498, compared with a South Australia suburb median of 3,699 — 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 Kensington Gardens from the Adelaide CBD?
Kensington Gardens sits 6 km straight-line from the Adelaide CBD. This is inner-ring territory — pricing competes directly with established Adelaide employment nodes.
What is the median rent in Kensington Gardens?
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $346 in Kensington Gardens, equating to approximately $17,992/year in gross rental income (state median $320/week). Market rents have typically drifted above the recorded figure — verify against current listings on realestate.com.au and Domain before making an offer.
What is the typical mortgage repayment in Kensington Gardens?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Kensington Gardens is $2,000, or approximately $24,000/year (vs $1,616/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 Kensington Gardens cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $346 works out to $1,499/month, covering 75% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,000/month. That leaves a $501/month shortfall (around $6,012/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 Kensington Gardens?
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (2,498 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,000 median mortgage, the broader South Australia 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 Kensington Gardens profile
The population, postcode, median household income, and dwelling mix on this page are real figures from the ABS 2021 Census (income is the ABS median weekly household income annualised) and Australia Post. Distance to the CBD is calculated from the suburb's ABS centroid. The Census median rent and mortgage repayment are 2021 figures and are clearly 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 Consumer & Business Services (SA) (Jan–Mar 2026), published under a Creative Commons licence — it is dated on the page and is separate from the older Census rent. 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.