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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Gardenvale is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with a population of approximately 1,019, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 10 km from the Melbourne CBD, Gardenvale is a outer metro area in Victoria. The median household income is $88,816 per year.
Moderate income levels in Gardenvale indicate steady rental demand from working households. Close CBD access strengthens tenant appeal and resale value.
Official Australia Post postcode for Gardenvale. 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 Gardenvale on My School →Estimated 1 park 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.
Gardenvale is a smaller community of 1,019 — about 14% 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 $88,816/year is 7% below the Victoria median of $95,160, typically translating into lower entry prices and a tenant base more sensitive to rent increases. Weekly rent of $301 covers just 44% of the median $2,953/month mortgage repayment, leaving a $1,649/month gap — investors should only pursue this suburb with a clear capital-growth thesis and sufficient external income to fund the shortfall. At 10 km from the Melbourne CBD, Gardenvale sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks. Only 32% 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.
How Gardenvale stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Gardenvale sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Gardenvale | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 1,019 | 7,416 | -86% |
| Median household income | $88,816/yr | $95,160/yr | -7% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $301 | $380 | -21% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,953 | $1,950 | +51% |
| Distance to CBD | 10 km | 32 km | -69% |
| Separate houses | 32% | 78% | -46pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Gardenvale — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Limited buy-and-hold upside: a small population of 1,019 means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Victoria market over full cycles.
Weak cash flow: $301/week rent covers only 44% of the $2,953/month median mortgage — a $1,649/month gap that must be funded from other income. This suburb is a capital-growth play, not a yield play.
Only 32% 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 Gardenvale property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Gardenvale are modest for 2026 — incomes 7% below the VIC median of $95,160 and a population of 1,019 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~44% of the typical mortgage ($1,304/month rent vs $2,953/month repayment), meaning investors will rely on capital growth rather than yield. The EquitySight investment score of 53/100 places Gardenvale in the mid tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is balanced heading into the second half of 2026.
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Gardenvale scores 53/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a moderate rating. That score is driven by a population of 1,019, median household income of $88,816/year and median weekly rent of $301. 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 Gardenvale are proximity to Melbourne (10 km), a median household income of $88,816/year, a dwelling mix that is 32% separate houses, roughly 1 schools and 1 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.
Gardenvale has a usual resident population of approximately 1,019, 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.
Gardenvale sits 10 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 $301 in Gardenvale, equating to approximately $15,652/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 Gardenvale is $2,953, or approximately $35,436/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 $301 works out to $1,304/month, covering 44% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,953/month. That leaves a $1,649/month shortfall (around $19,788/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 (1,019 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,953 median mortgage, a unit-heavy dwelling mix (32% 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.