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ABS 2021 Census · Updated 21 May 2026
Shoalwater is an outer-metropolitan suburb of Perth, Australia, with a population of approximately 4,368, making it a boutique locality. Located approximately 41 km from the Perth CBD, Shoalwater is a outer metro area in Western Australia. The median household income is $63,700 per year.
Shoalwater's income profile suggests a value-oriented market with competitive purchase prices. The outer location offers affordability but may see slower price appreciation.
Official Australia Post postcode for Shoalwater. 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 Shoalwater 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.
Shoalwater is a smaller community of 4,368 — about 78% of the Western Australia suburb median (5,605) — so investors should factor in the narrower buyer pool and longer average time-on-market. Shoalwater's median household income of $63,700/year is 36% below the Western Australia suburb median ($99,736) — this is an affordability play where returns lean on yield and patient capital growth rather than demographic premium. Median rent of $260/week (~$1,127/month) covers only 68% of the median mortgage of $1,668/month — the remaining $541/month must be funded from other income, so this suburb tilts toward capital growth rather than yield. At 41 km from Perth, Shoalwater is an outer-metro location where buyers are typically trading commute time for floor space and a lower entry price. Only 63% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 79% state median), so this is a unit-heavy market where body-corporate decisions and strata supply meaningfully shape investor returns.
Outer-metro suburbs reward careful property selection — aim for homes near infrastructure rather than generic house-and-land packages. Local rents consume roughly 21% of household income — a useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
How Shoalwater stacks up against the median of all Western Australia suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Shoalwater sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Shoalwater | WA median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 4,368 | 5,605 | -22% |
| Median household income | $63,700/yr | $99,736/yr | -36% |
| Median rent (weekly) | $260 | $350 | -26% |
| Median mortgage (monthly) | $1,668 | $1,902 | -12% |
| Distance to CBD | 41 km | 20 km | +105% |
| Separate houses | 63% | 79% | -16pp |
Pre-inspection briefing for Shoalwater — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
Limited buy-and-hold upside: household incomes 36% below the WA median ($63,700 vs $99,736) means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Western Australia market over full cycles.
Moderate rental coverage: rent of $260/week covers 68% of a $1,668/month mortgage, leaving a $541/month gap that an investor bridges with equity, depreciation and tax benefits.
Only 63% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 79% WA 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 Shoalwater property
Scenario comparison, cash flow analysis, tax modelling, and PDF export — all in one place.
Create free account →Capital-growth expectations for Shoalwater are modest for 2026 — incomes 36% below the WA median of $99,736 and a population of 4,368 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. Rental coverage runs at ~68% of the typical mortgage ($1,127/month rent vs $1,668/month repayment), leaving a manageable top-up for most investors. The EquitySight investment score of 49/100 places Shoalwater in the mid tier of Australian suburbs we profile, and overall investor sentiment is cautious heading into the second half of 2026.
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Shoalwater scores 49/100 on our EquitySight investment framework — a moderate rating. That score is driven by a population of 4,368, median household income of $63,700/year and median weekly rent of $260. 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 Shoalwater are a median household income of $63,700/year, a dwelling mix that is 63% 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.
Shoalwater has a usual resident population of approximately 4,368, 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.
Shoalwater sits 41 km straight-line from the Perth CBD. This is an outer-metro location; local employment and infrastructure announcements tend to move prices more than CBD connectivity alone.
The most recent census recorded a median weekly rent of $260 in Shoalwater, equating to approximately $13,520/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 Shoalwater is $1,668, or approximately $20,016/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 $260 works out to $1,127/month, covering 68% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,668/month. That leaves a $541/month shortfall (around $6,492/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 (4,368 residents), interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,668 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($63,700 vs $99,736 state median), 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.