EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with a population of approximately 4,896, making it a boutique locality. Located 2 km from the Melbourne CBD, East Melbourne is a inner city area in Victoria. The median household income is $121,940 per year.
East Melbourne benefits from a high-income resident base, supporting premium property pricing. Its proximity to the CBD adds a strong location premium.
Official Australia Post postcode for East Melbourne. 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 East Melbourne 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.
East Melbourne is a smaller community of 4,896 — about 66% of the Victoria suburb median (7,416) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. Median household income of $121,940/year runs 28% 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 $480/week (87% coverage of the $2,383/month median mortgage) leaves a gap of roughly $303/month that a typical investor bridges with negative gearing, depreciation and capital growth. At 2 km from the Melbourne CBD, East Melbourne sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 2% 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.
Inner-city investors should model strata costs and rate rises carefully, since gross yields here are often compressed by higher entry prices. Local rents consume roughly 20% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How East Melbourne stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean East Melbourne sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | East Melbourne | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 4,896 | 7,416 | -34% |
| Median household income | $121,940/yr | $95,160/yr | +28% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $480 | $380 | +26% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,383 | $1,950 | +22% |
| Distance to CBD | 2 km | 32 km | -94% |
| Separate houses | 2% | 78% | -76pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for East Melbourne — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Strong buy-and-hold fundamentals: household incomes run 28% above the Victoria suburb median ($121,940 vs $95,160), and the 2 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: $480/week (~$2,080/month) covers 87% of the $2,383/month median mortgage repayment, so the shortfall sits at just $303/month. Investors targeting positive cash flow should shortlist this suburb.
Only 2% 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 East Melbourne property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →East Melbourne enters 2026 with a demographic tailwind — household incomes 28% above the Victoria suburb median of $95,160 and a population of 4,896 give it the depth and purchasing power to outperform the wider VIC market over the next 12–18 months. Rental coverage runs at ~87% of the typical mortgage ($2,080/month rent vs $2,383/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. The EquitySight investment score of 89/100 places East Melbourne in the top tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is constructive heading into the second half of 2026.
Lived in East Melbourne? Help other investors with an honest 100-word review. Sign-in required; all reviews are manually moderated before they appear.
East Melbourne scores 89/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a strong rating. That score is driven by a population of 4,896, median household income of $121,940/year and median weekly rent of $480. 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 East Melbourne are proximity to Melbourne (2 km), an above-state-median household income of $121,940/year, a dwelling mix that is 2% 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.
East Melbourne has a usual resident population of approximately 4,896, 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.
East Melbourne 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 $480 in East Melbourne, equating to approximately $24,960/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 East Melbourne is $2,383, or approximately $28,596/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 $480 works out to $2,080/month, covering 87% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,383/month. That leaves a $303/month shortfall (around $3,636/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 a thin buyer pool (4,896 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,383 median mortgage, a unit-heavy dwelling mix (2% 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.