Suburb Overview
Tarneit is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Melbourne, Australia, with a population of approximately 56,370, making it a significant urban area. Located approximately 26 km from the Melbourne CBD, Tarneit is a middle ring area in Victoria. The median household income is $109,356 per year.
Location
Key Indicators
Postcode
3029
Postcode for Tarneit, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
Australia Post Postcode Finder →
Population
56,370
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$380/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
$109,356
Annual median household income (before tax) across all households.
Distance to CBD
26 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Sale prices & yield
Median house price
$650,000
Median house sale price — as at 2025 (preliminary), Valuer-General Victoria (CC BY 4.0).
Median unit price
$442,500
Median unit sale price — as at 2025 (preliminary), Valuer-General Victoria (CC BY 4.0).
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,950/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
85% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why People Like Living in Tarneit
- Outer-metro setting about 26 km from Melbourne — more space, quieter streets.
- Plenty of schooling options nearby — around 14 schools within reach.
- Good green-space access with around 23 parks and reserves nearby.
- Well-serviced by public transport and major roads.
- Predominantly separate houses (85%) — suburban lifestyle with more land.
Who Tarneit Suits
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Rent sits within an affordable share of local incomes, supporting tenant demand.
- Mortgage costs are lower than the Victoria median, improving cash-flow margins.
- Access to several schools nearby (around 14).
- Local parks and reserves (around 23) add to liveability.
- Solid transport links into employment hubs.
Cons
- Traffic can build during peak hours, especially on arterial roads.
- Prices may rise further as demand continues.
Investment Insight
With 56,370 residents, Tarneit is one of Victoria's more populous suburbs — roughly 7.6× the state median of 7,416 — giving it a deep buyer and tenant pool that typically supports higher transaction volumes and shorter average days on market. Median household income of $109,356/year runs 15% 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. At the 2021 Census, rent of $380/week covered 84% of the $1,950/month median mortgage recorded at the same Census, leaving a gap of roughly $303/month at the time. Rents and repayments have both risen since — re-run the numbers with current figures before drawing conclusions. At 26 km from Melbourne, Tarneit is an outer-metro location where buyers are typically trading commute time for floor space and a lower entry price.
Investment Tip
This suburb suits long-term investors looking for a balance of rental yield and capital growth. Schools and transport underpin family demand. At the 2021 Census, local rents consumed roughly 18% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Tarneit vs Victoria Median
How Tarneit stacks up against the median of all Victoria suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Tarneit sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Tarneit | VIC median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 56,370 | 7,416 | +660% |
| Median household income | $109,356/yr | $95,160/yr | +15% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $380 | $380 | 0% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,950 | $1,950 | 0% |
| Distance to CBD | 26 km | 32 km | -19% |
| Separate houses | 85% | 78% | +7pp |
Investor Checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Tarneit — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 56,370 residents — 760% of the VIC suburb median (7,416).
- Purchasing power: median household income $109,356/year (+15% vs Victoria suburb median of $95,160).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $380/week rent (≈ $1,647/month) covered ~84% of the $1,950/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 26 km straight-line from Melbourne (state suburb median 32 km).
- Dwelling mix: 85% separate houses — house-dominant market (vs 78% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$195/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,950/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 18% of the median household income is spent on rent — comfortably affordable.
Investment Strategy
Solid buy-and-hold profile: a population of 56,370 and household income close to the VIC median ($109,356 vs $95,160) give the market enough depth for patient capital growth without the premium entry price of inner suburbs.
Moderate rental coverage at the 2021 Census: rent of $380/week covered 84% of a $1,950/month mortgage, a $303/month gap bridged with equity, depreciation and tax benefits. Re-check with current rents and rates before committing.
With 85% houses in a 56,370-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 $1,950/month median mortgage in Tarneit means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $195/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Tarneit is 26 km from the CBD — not close enough to benefit from the inner-ring pricing halo, so growth depends more heavily on local infrastructure decisions and the wider Victoria market cycle.
- House-dominant stock: 85% 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 Tarneit regardless of local market conditions.
- Market cycle risk: property markets are cyclical, so stress-test your projections in Tarneit with a 10–15% price pullback scenario before committing capital — returns to date are not a guarantee of future performance.
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Property values in Tarneit should track the wider Victoria market through 2026, with the $109,356/year median household income (15% above the $95,160 state median) keeping the suburb firmly mid-pack. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~84% of the typical mortgage ($1,647/month rent vs $1,950/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Tarneit is constructive 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 Tarneit a good suburb for investment?
Whether Tarneit suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 56,370, a median household income of $109,356/year and median weekly rent of $380. 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 Tarneit?
The main demand drivers in Tarneit are an above-state-median household income of $109,356/year, a dwelling mix that is 85% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Tarneit?
Tarneit has a usual resident population of approximately 56,370, compared with a Victoria suburb median of 7,416 — placing it in the upper 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 Tarneit from the Melbourne CBD?
Tarneit sits 26 km straight-line from the Melbourne CBD. This is an outer-metro location; local employment and infrastructure announcements tend to move prices more than CBD connectivity alone.
What is the median rent in Tarneit?
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $380 in Tarneit, equating to approximately $19,760/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 Tarneit?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Tarneit is $1,950, or approximately $23,400/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.
Is Tarneit cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $380 works out to $1,647/month, covering 84% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,950/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.
What are the main risks of investing in Tarneit?
The main risks are interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,950 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 Tarneit 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.