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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Carlton is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with a population of approximately 16,055, making it a smaller community. Located 2 km from the Melbourne CBD, Carlton is a middle ring area in Victoria. The median household income is $67,184 per year.
Carlton's income profile suggests a value-oriented market with competitive purchase prices. Its proximity to the CBD adds a strong location premium.
Official Australia Post postcode for Carlton. 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 4 schools within or near this suburb.
Find schools near Carlton on My School →Estimated 6 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.
With 16,055 residents, Carlton is one of Victoria's more populous suburbs — roughly 2.2× the state median of 7,416 — giving it a deep buyer and tenant pool that typically supports higher transaction volumes and shorter average days on market. Carlton's median household income of $67,184/year is 29% below the Victoria suburb median ($95,160) — this is an affordability play where returns lean on yield and patient capital growth rather than demographic premium. Rent of $365/week (83% coverage of the $1,898/month median mortgage) leaves a gap of roughly $316/month that a typical investor bridges with negative gearing, depreciation and capital growth. At 2 km from the Melbourne CBD, Carlton sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 1% 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 looking for a balance of rental yield and capital growth. Schools and transport underpin family demand. Local rents consume roughly 28% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Carlton stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Carlton sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Carlton | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 16,055 | 7,416 | +116% |
| Median household income | $67,184/yr | $95,160/yr | -29% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $365 | $380 | -4% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $1,898 | $1,950 | -3% |
| Distance to CBD | 2 km | 32 km | -94% |
| Separate houses | 1% | 78% | -77pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Carlton — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Limited buy-and-hold upside: household incomes 29% below the VIC median ($67,184 vs $95,160) means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Victoria market over full cycles.
Moderate rental coverage: rent of $365/week covers 83% of a $1,898/month mortgage, leaving a $316/month gap that an investor bridges with equity, depreciation and tax benefits.
Only 1% 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 Carlton property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Carlton are modest for 2026 — incomes 29% below the VIC median of $95,160 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~83% of the typical mortgage ($1,582/month rent vs $1,898/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. The EquitySight investment score of 63/100 places Carlton in the upper-middle tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is balanced heading into the second half of 2026.
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Carlton scores 63/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a good rating. That score is driven by a population of 16,055, median household income of $67,184/year and median weekly rent of $365. 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 Carlton are proximity to Melbourne (2 km), a median household income of $67,184/year, a dwelling mix that is 1% separate houses, roughly 4 schools and 6 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.
Carlton has a usual resident population of approximately 16,055, compared with a Victoria suburb median of 7,416 — 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.
Carlton sits 2 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 $365 in Carlton, equating to approximately $18,980/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 Carlton is $1,898, or approximately $22,776/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 $365 works out to $1,582/month, covering 83% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,898/month. That leaves a $316/month shortfall (around $3,792/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 $1,898 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($67,184 vs $95,160 state median), a unit-heavy dwelling mix (1% 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.