Suburb Overview
Hillcrest is a regional centre in Victoria, Australia, with a population of approximately 99, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 119 km from the Melbourne CBD, Hillcrest is a regional area in Victoria. The median household income is $81,224 per year.
Location
Key Indicators
Postcode
3351
Postcode for Hillcrest, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →
Population
99
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
N/A
A current median rent has not been published for this suburb.
Median household income
$81,224
Annual median household income (before tax) across all households.
Distance to CBD
119 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,660/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
87% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Investment Insight
Hillcrest is a smaller community of 99 — about 1% 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 $81,224/year is 15% below the Victoria median of $95,160, typically translating into lower entry prices and a tenant base more sensitive to rent increases. Hillcrest is 119 km from Melbourne, so the local market tracks regional employment and lifestyle drivers more than CBD-driven commuter demand.
Hillcrest vs Victoria Median
How Hillcrest stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Hillcrest sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Hillcrest | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 99 | 7,416 | -99% |
| Median household income | $81,224/yr | $95,160/yr | -15% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,660 | $1,950 | -15% |
| Distance to CBD | 119 km | 32 km | +272% |
| Separate houses | 87% | 78% | +9pp |
Investor Checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Hillcrest — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 99 residents — 1% of the VIC suburb median (7,416).
- Purchasing power: median household income $81,224/year (-15% vs Victoria suburb median of $95,160).
- Gross rental income: verify via realestate.com.au — median rent data was not captured for this suburb.
- CBD access: 119 km straight-line from Melbourne (state suburb median 32 km).
- Dwelling mix: 87% separate houses — house-dominant market (vs 78% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$166/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,660/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: rent-to-income data not available — verify against state rental tribunal dashboards.
Investment Strategy
Limited buy-and-hold upside: a small population of 99 means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Victoria market over full cycles.
Median rental data was not captured for Hillcrest. Use current realestate.com.au and Domain listings to triangulate a realistic weekly rent before committing, then feed that number into our rental yield calculator.
With 87% houses in a 99-person market, renovation margins depend on individual street and aspect rather than any suburb-wide story — do comparable-sales analysis before committing capital.
Risk Factors
- Interest-rate sensitivity: the $1,660/month median mortgage in Hillcrest means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $166/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Liquidity risk: with 99 residents, Hillcrest 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.
- Commute distance: at 119 km from the nearest CBD, Hillcrest depends on local employment rather than city-driven commuter demand, which amplifies the market's sensitivity to regional industry slowdowns.
- House-dominant stock: 87% of dwellings are separate houses, so value is concentrated in land — weather events, insurance repricing and land-tax changes hit investors here more directly than in a unit-heavy suburb.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Hillcrest regardless of local market conditions.
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Start your first-home journey →2026 Outlook
Capital-growth expectations for Hillcrest are modest for 2026 — incomes 15% below the VIC median of $95,160 and a population of 99 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental fundamentals will need to be verified against live listings, as a clean median rent was not recorded for Hillcrest. Overall investor sentiment for Hillcrest is cautious 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 Hillcrest a good suburb for investment?
Whether Hillcrest suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 99, a median household income of $81,224/year. 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 Hillcrest?
The main demand drivers in Hillcrest are a median household income of $81,224/year, a dwelling mix that is 87% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Hillcrest?
Hillcrest has a usual resident population of approximately 99, 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 Hillcrest from the Melbourne CBD?
Hillcrest sits 119 km straight-line from the Melbourne CBD. This is a regional market where CBD distance is only indicative — local industry diversity and commute alternatives matter more.
What is the median rent in Hillcrest?
A reliable median rent was not captured for Hillcrest. Benchmark expected weekly rent on realestate.com.au and Domain, or the state rental tribunal's rent dashboard. Most Australian investors target a 4–5% gross yield as a baseline.
What is the typical mortgage repayment in Hillcrest?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Hillcrest is $1,660, or approximately $19,920/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 Hillcrest cash-flow positive for investors?
Census data was not complete enough in Hillcrest to compute a clean rent-to-mortgage coverage. Use current listings to benchmark weekly rent, then plug your expected purchase price into our rental yield calculator to see whether the investment runs cash-flow positive or negative.
What are the main risks of investing in Hillcrest?
The main risks are a thin buyer pool (99 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,660 median mortgage, 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 Hillcrest 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.