Suburb overview
Nairne is a regional centre in South Australia, Australia, with a population of approximately 5,327, making it a smaller community. Located approximately 31 km from the Adelaide CBD, Nairne is a regional area in South Australia. The median household income is $92,352 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
5252
Postcode for Nairne, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
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Population
5,327
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$598/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Jan–Mar 2026, Consumer & Business Services (SA) (CC BY 4.0).
Distance to CBD
31 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,500/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 Nairne
- Outer-metro setting about 31 km from Adelaide — more space, quieter streets.
- Predominantly separate houses (93%) — suburban lifestyle with more land.
- Country-town feel with lower density and slower pace of life.
Who Nairne suits
Pros and cons
Pros
- Rent sits within an affordable share of local incomes, supporting tenant demand.
- Mortgage costs are lower than the South Australia median, improving cash-flow margins.
- Lower purchase prices and more land for the money.
Cons
- Long distance to the CBD (31 km) — plan for commute time or local employment.
- Traffic can build during peak hours, especially on arterial roads.
Investment insight
Nairne's population of 5,327 sits 44% above the South Australia suburb median of 3,699, giving it a wider tenant and buyer catchment than the average SA locality. Households here earn $92,352/year on average — 14% above the SA suburb median of $80,964 — a modest premium that supports resilient owner-occupier demand. Median rent of $598/week (as at Jan–Mar 2026, Consumer & Business Services (SA)) equates to roughly $2,591/month — about 173% of the $1,500/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 31 km from Adelaide, Nairne 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 — 20 percentage points above the South Australia median of 73% — pointing to a family-oriented, land-rich market where value is concentrated in the underlying block.
Investment tip
This suburb suits yield-focused investors who are comfortable with lower liquidity. Employment concentration and local population trends matter more here than in metro markets. At the 2021 Census, local rents consumed roughly 20% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Nairne vs South Australia median
How Nairne stacks up against the median of all South Australia suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Nairne sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Nairne | SA median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 5,327 | 3,699 | +44% |
| Median household income | $92,352/yr | $80,964/yr | +14% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $350 | $320 | +9% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,500 | $1,616 | -7% |
| Distance to CBD | 31 km | 13 km | +138% |
| Separate houses | 93% | 73% | +20pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Nairne — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 5,327 residents — 144% of the SA suburb median (3,699).
- Purchasing power: median household income $92,352/year (+14% vs South Australia suburb median of $80,964).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $350/week rent (≈ $1,517/month) covered ~101% of the $1,500/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 31 km straight-line from Adelaide (state suburb median 13 km).
- Dwelling mix: 93% separate houses — house-dominant market (vs 73% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$150/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,500/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 20% of the median household income is spent on rent — comfortably affordable.
Investment strategy
Solid buy-and-hold profile: a population of 5,327 and household income close to the SA median ($92,352 vs $80,964) give the market enough depth for patient capital growth without the premium entry price of inner suburbs.
Strong rental coverage at the 2021 Census: $350/week (~$1,517/month) covered 101% of the $1,500/month median mortgage, a shortfall of just $0/month. Both rents and repayments have moved since 2021 — verify current figures, though this suburb has historically leaned cash-flow-friendly.
A dwelling mix skewed to houses (93% vs 73% SA median) combined with a population of 5,327 creates a deeper market for value-add renovations — older stock, separate titles and stronger buyer competition are the usual pattern here.
Risk factors
- Interest-rate sensitivity: the $1,500/month median mortgage in Nairne means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $150/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Nairne is 31 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 South Australia 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 Nairne regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Nairne 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 Nairne property
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Start your journey near Nairne →2026 outlook
Property values in Nairne should track the wider South Australia market through 2026, with the $92,352/year median household income (14% above the $80,964 state median) keeping the suburb firmly mid-pack. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~101% of the typical mortgage ($1,517/month rent vs $1,500/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Nairne is balanced heading into the second half of 2026, based on its income, rent and mortgage profile relative to the South Australia median.
Frequently asked questions
Is Nairne a good suburb for investment?
Whether Nairne suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 5,327, a median household income of $92,352/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 Nairne?
The main demand drivers in Nairne are an above-state-median household income of $92,352/year, a dwelling mix that is 93% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Nairne?
Nairne has a usual resident population of approximately 5,327, compared with a South Australia suburb median of 3,699 — 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 Nairne from the Adelaide CBD?
Nairne sits 31 km straight-line from the Adelaide 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 Nairne?
The median weekly rent in Nairne is $598 (as at Jan–Mar 2026, Consumer & Business Services (SA)), equating to approximately $31,096/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 Nairne?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Nairne is $1,500, or approximately $18,000/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 Nairne cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $350 works out to $1,517/month, covering 101% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,500/month. That means rent exceeds the median repayment by roughly $17/month, so on these numbers Nairne leans cash-flow-positive before accounting for strata, council rates, insurance and maintenance. 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 Nairne?
The main risks are interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,500 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 Nairne 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 Consumer & Business Services (SA) (Jan–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.