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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Shelley is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Perth, Australia, with a population of approximately 4,795, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 9 km from the Perth CBD, Shelley is a outer metro area in Western Australia. The median household income is $113,672 per year.
Shelley 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 Shelley. 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 Shelley 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.
4,795 residents places Shelley squarely in the middle of the Western Australia suburb size distribution (state median 5,605), with market depth comparable to most WA localities. Households here earn $113,672/year on average — 14% above the WA suburb median of $99,736 — a modest premium that supports resilient owner-occupier demand. Rent of $380/week (72% coverage of the $2,275/month median mortgage) leaves a gap of roughly $628/month that a typical investor bridges with negative gearing, depreciation and capital growth. At 9 km from the Perth CBD, Shelley sits inside the high-demand inner ring — properties here compete directly with the city's employment, transport and amenity networks.
Outer-metro suburbs reward careful property selection — aim for homes near infrastructure rather than generic house-and-land packages. Local rents consume roughly 17% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Shelley stacks up against the median of all Western Australia suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Shelley sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Shelley | WA median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 4,795 | 5,605 | -14% |
| Median household income | $113,672/yr | $99,736/yr | +14% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $380 | $350 | +9% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $2,275 | $1,902 | +20% |
| Distance to CBD | 9 km | 20 km | -55% |
| Separate houses | 73% | 79% | -6pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Shelley — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Moderate buy-and-hold potential: Shelley's 4,795-person market and $113,672 median household income work for investors who are selective on street location and property quality rather than counting on a suburb-wide rerating.
Moderate rental coverage: rent of $380/week covers 72% of a $2,275/month mortgage, leaving a $628/month gap that an investor bridges with equity, depreciation and tax benefits.
With 73% houses in a 4,795-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 Shelley property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Shelley are modest for 2026 — incomes 14% above the WA median of $99,736 and a population of 4,795 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~72% of the typical mortgage ($1,647/month rent vs $2,275/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. The EquitySight investment score of 76/100 places Shelley in the upper-middle tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is constructive heading into the second half of 2026.
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Shelley scores 76/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a good rating. That score is driven by a population of 4,795, median household income of $113,672/year and median weekly rent of $380. 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 Shelley are proximity to Perth (9 km), an above-state-median household income of $113,672/year, a dwelling mix that is 73% 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.
Shelley has a usual resident population of approximately 4,795, 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.
Shelley sits 9 km straight-line from the Perth CBD. This is inner-ring territory — pricing competes directly with established Perth employment nodes.
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $380 in Shelley, equating to approximately $19,760/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 Shelley is $2,275, or approximately $27,300/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 $380 works out to $1,647/month, covering 72% of the median mortgage repayment of $2,275/month. That leaves a $628/month shortfall (around $7,536/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 (4,795 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $2,275 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.