EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Clifton Hill is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with a population of approximately 6,606, making it a smaller community. Located 4 km from the Melbourne CBD, Clifton Hill is a middle ring area in Victoria. The median household income is $143,260 per year.
Clifton Hill benefits from a high-income resident base, supporting premium property pricing. The short commute to the city centre is a key demand driver.
Official Australia Post postcode for Clifton Hill. 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 2 schools within or near this suburb.
Find schools near Clifton Hill on My School →Estimated 3 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.
6,606 residents places Clifton Hill squarely in the middle of the Victoria suburb size distribution (state median 7,416), with market depth comparable to most VIC localities. Median household income of $143,260/year runs 51% above the Victoria suburb median of $95,160, indicating strong purchasing power and the type of demographic profile that tends to sustain premium property prices through market cycles. Rent of $550/week (88% coverage of the $2,700/month median mortgage) leaves a gap of roughly $317/month that a typical investor bridges with negative gearing, depreciation and capital growth. At 4 km from the Melbourne CBD, Clifton Hill sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 22% 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.
Middle-ring locations like this one historically reward patient holders — focus on homes near catchment-zone schools and major transport. Local rents consume roughly 20% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Clifton Hill stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Clifton Hill sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Clifton Hill | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 6,606 | 7,416 | -11% |
| Median household income | $143,260/yr | $95,160/yr | +51% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $550 | $380 | +45% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,700 | $1,950 | +38% |
| Distance to CBD | 4 km | 32 km | -87% |
| Separate houses | 22% | 78% | -56pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Clifton Hill — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Strong buy-and-hold fundamentals: household incomes run 51% above the Victoria suburb median ($143,260 vs $95,160), and the 4 km CBD distance keeps this suburb in the primary demand zone. In Victoria, suburbs with this profile have historically clustered in the upper tercile of 10-year capital growth.
Strong rental coverage: $550/week (~$2,383/month) covers 88% of the $2,700/month median mortgage repayment, so the shortfall sits at just $317/month. Investors targeting positive cash flow should shortlist this suburb.
Only 22% 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 Clifton Hill property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Clifton Hill enters 2026 with a demographic tailwind — household incomes 51% above the Victoria suburb median of $95,160 and a population of 6,606 give it the depth and purchasing power to outperform the wider VIC market over the next 12–18 months. Rental coverage runs at ~88% of the typical mortgage ($2,383/month rent vs $2,700/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. The EquitySight investment score of 87/100 places Clifton Hill in the top tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is constructive heading into the second half of 2026.
Lived in Clifton Hill? Help other investors with an honest 100-word review. Sign-in required; all reviews are manually moderated before they appear.
Clifton Hill scores 87/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a strong rating. That score is driven by a population of 6,606, median household income of $143,260/year and median weekly rent of $550. 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 Clifton Hill are proximity to Melbourne (4 km), an above-state-median household income of $143,260/year, a dwelling mix that is 22% separate houses, roughly 2 schools and 3 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.
Clifton Hill has a usual resident population of approximately 6,606, 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.
Clifton Hill sits 4 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 $550 in Clifton Hill, equating to approximately $28,600/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 Clifton Hill is $2,700, or approximately $32,400/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 $550 works out to $2,383/month, covering 88% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,700/month. That leaves a $317/month shortfall (around $3,804/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 $2,700 median mortgage, a unit-heavy dwelling mix (22% 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.