EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
EquitySight.app
Free full calculator →
ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Herne Hill is a well-established middle-ring suburb of Perth, Australia, with a population of approximately 1,542, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 21 km from the Perth CBD, Herne Hill is a middle ring area in Western Australia. The median household income is $87,308 per year.
Moderate income levels in Herne Hill indicate steady rental demand from working households.
Official Australia Post postcode for Herne 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 1 school within or near this suburb.
Find schools near Herne Hill 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.
Herne Hill is a smaller community of 1,542 — about 28% of the Western Australia suburb median (5,605) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. Household income of $87,308/year is 12% below the Western Australia median of $99,736, typically translating into lower entry prices and a tenant base more sensitive to rent increases. Rent of $335/week (79% coverage of the $1,831/month median mortgage) leaves a gap of roughly $379/month that a typical investor bridges with negative gearing, depreciation and capital growth. 21 km from Perth places Herne Hill in the middle commuter belt, close enough for daily trips by car or rail but at a materially lower price point than inner suburbs.
How Herne Hill stacks up against the median of all Western Australia suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Herne Hill sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Herne Hill | WA median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 1,542 | 5,605 | -72% |
| Median household income | $87,308/yr | $99,736/yr | -12% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $335 | $350 | -4% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $1,831 | $1,902 | -4% |
| Distance to CBD | 21 km | 20 km | +5% |
| Separate houses | 89% | 79% | +10pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Herne Hill — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Limited buy-and-hold upside: a small population of 1,542 means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Western Australia market over full cycles.
Moderate rental coverage: rent of $335/week covers 79% of a $1,831/month mortgage, leaving a $379/month gap that an investor bridges with equity, depreciation and tax benefits.
With 89% houses in a 1,542-person market, renovation margins depend on individual street and aspect rather than any suburb-wide story — do comparable-sales analysis before committing capital.
Run the numbers on a Herne Hill property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Herne Hill are modest for 2026 — incomes 12% below the WA median of $99,736 and a population of 1,542 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~79% of the typical mortgage ($1,452/month rent vs $1,831/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. The EquitySight investment score of 55/100 places Herne Hill in the mid tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is balanced heading into the second half of 2026.
Lived in Herne Hill? Help other investors with an honest 100-word review. Sign-in required; all reviews are manually moderated before they appear.
Herne Hill scores 55/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a moderate rating. That score is driven by a population of 1,542, median household income of $87,308/year and median weekly rent of $335. 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 Herne Hill are proximity to Perth (21 km), a median household income of $87,308/year, a dwelling mix that is 89% 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.
Herne Hill has a usual resident population of approximately 1,542, compared with a Western Australia suburb median of 5,605 — 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.
Herne Hill sits 21 km straight-line from the Perth CBD. This is comfortable commuter territory, with reasonable rail and road access to the city.
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $335 in Herne Hill, equating to approximately $17,420/year in gross rental income (state median $350/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 Herne Hill is $1,831, or approximately $21,972/year (vs $1,902/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 $335 works out to $1,452/month, covering 79% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,831/month. That leaves a $379/month shortfall (around $4,548/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 (1,542 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,831 median mortgage, the broader Western Australia 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.