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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Balaclava is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with a population of approximately 5,392, making it a smaller community. Located approximately 7 km from the Melbourne CBD, Balaclava is a outer metro area in Victoria. The median household income is $105,352 per year.
Strong household incomes in Balaclava underpin solid property demand. Close CBD access strengthens tenant appeal and resale value.
Official Australia Post postcode for Balaclava. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Weekly median rent for occupied homes. Live rental data integration coming soon.
Annual median household income (before tax) across all households.
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Estimated 1 school within or near this suburb.
Find schools near Balaclava on My School →Estimated 2 parks and green spaces near this suburb.
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Balaclava is a smaller community of 5,392 — about 73% of the Victoria suburb median (7,416) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. Households here earn $105,352/year on average — 11% above the VIC suburb median of $95,160 — a modest premium that supports resilient owner-occupier demand. Rent of $386/week (75% coverage of the $2,223/month median mortgage) leaves a gap of roughly $550/month that a typical investor bridges with negative gearing, depreciation and capital growth. At 7 km from the Melbourne CBD, Balaclava sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 14% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 78% state median), so this is a unit-heavy market where body-corporate decisions and strata supply meaningfully shape investor returns.
This suburb suits long-term investors due to steady population growth and affordable entry prices. Look for established streets close to schools and shops rather than raw new-estate land. Local rents consume roughly 19% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Balaclava stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Balaclava sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Balaclava | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 5,392 | 7,416 | -27% |
| Median household income | $105,352/yr | $95,160/yr | +11% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $386 | $380 | +2% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,223 | $1,950 | +14% |
| Distance to CBD | 7 km | 32 km | -78% |
| Separate houses | 14% | 78% | -64pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Balaclava — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Solid buy-and-hold profile: a population of 5,392 and household income close to the VIC median ($105,352 vs $95,160) give the market enough depth for patient capital growth without the premium entry price of inner suburbs.
Moderate rental coverage: rent of $386/week covers 75% of a $2,223/month mortgage, leaving a $550/month gap that an investor bridges with equity, depreciation and tax benefits.
Only 14% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 78% VIC median) — this is a unit and townhouse market, where cosmetic flips struggle against body-corporate restrictions, thinner after-reno uplift and competing new supply.
Run the numbers on a Balaclava property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Property values in Balaclava should track the wider Victoria market through 2026, with the $105,352/year median household income (11% above the $95,160 state median) keeping the suburb firmly mid-pack. Rental coverage runs at ~75% of the typical mortgage ($1,673/month rent vs $2,223/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. The EquitySight investment score of 71/100 places Balaclava in the upper-middle tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is constructive heading into the second half of 2026.
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Balaclava scores 71/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a good rating. That score is driven by a population of 5,392, median household income of $105,352/year and median weekly rent of $386. Whether it fits your portfolio depends on whether you are targeting cash flow, capital growth, or a value-add renovation — all three are scored with suburb-specific numbers elsewhere on this page.
The main demand drivers in Balaclava are proximity to Melbourne (7 km), an above-state-median household income of $105,352/year, a dwelling mix that is 14% separate houses, roughly 1 schools and 2 parks within the catchment. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand and are the factors we weight most heavily in the suburb's investment score.
Balaclava has a usual resident population of approximately 5,392, compared with a Victoria suburb median of 7,416 — 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.
Balaclava sits 7 km straight-line from the Melbourne CBD. This is inner-ring territory — pricing competes directly with established Melbourne employment nodes.
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $386 in Balaclava, equating to approximately $20,072/year in gross rental income (state median $380/week). Market rents have typically drifted above the recorded figure — verify against current listings on realestate.com.au and Domain before making an offer.
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Balaclava is $2,223, or approximately $26,676/year (vs $1,950/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.
A median weekly rent of $386 works out to $1,673/month, covering 75% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,223/month. That leaves a $550/month shortfall (around $6,600/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.
The main risks are interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,223 median mortgage, a unit-heavy dwelling mix (14% houses) where body-corporate costs and apartment supply affect resale, the broader Victoria market cycle. Each of these is covered in the Risk Factors section above with suburb-specific numbers rather than generic warnings.
Every number on this page comes from the ABS 2021 Census of Population and Housing, Australia Post postcode reference data, and OpenStreetMap amenity tiles. The investment score, strategy verdicts, and comparison table are computed deterministically from those inputs — no opinion, no estimation. See our full methodology and the data sources and licences for the formulas we use.