Suburb Overview
Caulfield East is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with a population of approximately 1,293, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 10 km from the Melbourne CBD, Caulfield East is a middle ring area in Victoria. The median household income is $87,464 per year.
Location
Key Indicators
Postcode
3145
Postcode for Caulfield East, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
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Population
1,293
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$320/wk
Median weekly rent recorded at the 2021 Census — market rents have risen since, so treat this as a dated baseline, not a current figure.
Median household income
$87,464
Annual median household income (before tax) across all households.
Distance to CBD
10 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Sale prices & yield
Median unit price
$320,000
Median unit sale price — as at 2025 (preliminary), Valuer-General Victoria (CC BY 4.0).
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$2,167/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
30% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Investment Insight
Caulfield East is a smaller community of 1,293 — about 17% of the Victoria suburb median (7,416) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. Household income of $87,464/year is 8% below the Victoria median of $95,160, typically translating into lower entry prices and a tenant base more sensitive to rent increases. At the 2021 Census, median rent of $320/week (~$1,387/month) covered only 64% of the $2,167/month median mortgage recorded at the same Census — a dated snapshot, but one that suggests this suburb tilted toward capital growth rather than yield. At 10 km from the Melbourne CBD, Caulfield East sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 30% 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.
Caulfield East vs Victoria Median
How Caulfield East stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Caulfield East sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Caulfield East | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 1,293 | 7,416 | -83% |
| Median household income | $87,464/yr | $95,160/yr | -8% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $320 | $380 | -16% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $2,167 | $1,950 | +11% |
| Distance to CBD | 10 km | 32 km | -69% |
| Separate houses | 30% | 78% | -48pp |
Investor Checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Caulfield East — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 1,293 residents — 17% of the VIC suburb median (7,416).
- Purchasing power: median household income $87,464/year (-8% vs Victoria suburb median of $95,160).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $320/week rent (≈ $1,387/month) covered ~64% of the $2,167/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 10 km straight-line from Melbourne (state suburb median 32 km).
- Dwelling mix: 30% separate houses — unit-heavy market (vs 78% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$217/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $2,167/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 19% of the median household income is spent on rent — comfortably affordable.
Investment Strategy
Limited buy-and-hold upside: a small population of 1,293 means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Victoria market over full cycles.
Weak cash flow at the 2021 Census: $320/week rent covered only 64% of the $2,167/month median mortgage — a $780/month gap funded from other income. On the Census snapshot this reads as a capital-growth play, not a yield play; verify current rents before deciding.
Only 30% 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.
Risk Factors
- Interest-rate sensitivity: the $2,167/month median mortgage in Caulfield East means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $217/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Liquidity risk: with 1,293 residents, Caulfield East 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.
- Strata exposure: only 30% of dwellings in Caulfield East are separate houses, so most investment stock is apartments or townhouses subject to body-corporate fees, sinking-fund levies and competing supply from new developments.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Caulfield East regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Caulfield East 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 Caulfield East are modest for 2026 — incomes 8% below the VIC median of $95,160 and a population of 1,293 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~64% of the typical mortgage ($1,387/month rent vs $2,167/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Caulfield East is balanced heading into the second half of 2026, based on its income, rent and mortgage profile relative to the Victoria median.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Caulfield East a good suburb for investment?
Whether Caulfield East suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 1,293, a median household income of $87,464/year and median weekly rent of $320. 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 Caulfield East?
The main demand drivers in Caulfield East are proximity to Melbourne (10 km), a median household income of $87,464/year, a dwelling mix that is 30% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Caulfield East?
Caulfield East has a usual resident population of approximately 1,293, 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.
How far is Caulfield East from the Melbourne CBD?
Caulfield East sits 10 km straight-line from the Melbourne CBD. This is inner-ring territory — pricing competes directly with established Melbourne employment nodes.
What is the median rent in Caulfield East?
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $320 in Caulfield East, equating to approximately $16,640/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.
What is the typical mortgage repayment in Caulfield East?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Caulfield East is $2,167, or approximately $26,004/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.
Is Caulfield East cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $320 works out to $1,387/month, covering 64% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,167/month. That leaves a $780/month shortfall (around $9,360/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 Caulfield East?
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (1,293 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,167 median mortgage, a unit-heavy dwelling mix (30% 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.
How we built this Caulfield East 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. 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.