Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Australia
We constantly update this blog post so the data you see here reflects the Australian rental market as of March 2026.
Whether you are comparing suburbs or deciding between Melbourne and Sydney, this guide gives you a clear, honest picture of where your money goes furthest.
All figures cover residential property only, and every number comes from a verifiable, authoritative source.
And if you're planning to buy a property in Australia, you may want to download our real estate pack about Australia.
A quick summary table
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Australian suburb with the best gross rental yield | Melbourne CBD (1-bed unit, 8.2% gross) |
| Australian suburbs with the weakest rental yields | Paddington (3-bed terrace, 2.3%) and Mosman (3-bed house, 2.3%) |
| Average gross rental yield across Australian suburbs covered | ~4.1% |
| Average net rental yield across Australian suburbs covered | ~3.0% |
| Median purchase price in this Australian dataset | ~A$1,000,000 |
| Average monthly rent across Australian suburbs covered | ~A$3,900 |
| Average occupancy rate across Australian suburbs | ~94.6% |
| Fastest-leasing Australian suburb in this dataset | Mosman, Surry Hills, Paddington, and Marrickville (all at ~14 days) |
| Slowest-leasing Australian suburb in this dataset | Surry Hills 3-bed unit (34 days) |
| Highest occupancy in this Australian market | Melbourne CBD, South Yarra, Richmond, Sydney CBD, Surry Hills, Randwick, Paddington, Mosman, and Marrickville (all at 96%) |
| Best value high-yield segment in Australia | Melbourne CBD and inner-Melbourne 1-bed units (8.2% gross, 5.0% net) |
| Australian yield dispersion in this dataset | From 2.3% (prestige houses) to 8.2% (Melbourne CBD units), a gap of nearly 6 percentage points |
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Australian suburbs and property types in 2026 ranked by rental yield
This table ranks the top Australian suburbs and property types by gross rental yield in March 2026.
For each suburb and property type, the table includes average purchase price, average monthly rent, gross rental yield, net rental yield, annual ownership fees, average occupancy, average time to rent, main rental demand, main risk, and investment profile.
By the way, you'll find much more detailed data in our real estate pack about Australia.
| # | Neighborhood | Property type | Gross rental yield | Net rental yield | Average purchase price | Average monthly rent | Ownership annual fees | Average occupancy | Average time to rent | Main rental demand | Main risk | Rental Investment Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne CBD | 1-bed unit | 8.2% | 5.0% | A$349,000 | A$2,383 | A$11,000 | 96% | 21 days | CBD students and young renters | High strata fees and new tower supply | Top Pick |
| 2 | Melbourne CBD | 2-bed unit | 7.0% | 4.6% | A$542,000 | A$3,142 | A$13,000 | 94% | 27 days | CBD sharers and young couples | Tower oversupply risk in weak cycles | Strong Potential |
| 3 | South Yarra | 1-bed unit | 7.0% | 4.4% | A$380,000 | A$2,232 | A$10,000 | 96% | 18 days | Young professionals near Chapel Street | Older block special levies | Strong Potential |
| 4 | South Yarra | 2-bed unit | 5.8% | 3.9% | A$650,000 | A$3,120 | A$12,000 | 94% | 22 days | Professional couples and flatmates | Strata cost drift over time | Good Potential |
| 5 | South Yarra | 3-bed unit | 4.3% | 3.0% | A$1,400,000 | A$4,333 | A$18,000 | 93% | 26 days | Affluent sharers and downsizers | Thin buyer pool on resale | Moderate Appeal |
| 6 | Richmond | 1-bed unit | 6.4% | 4.5% | A$403,750 | A$2,167 | A$8,000 | 96% | 17 days | Young professionals near the CBD | Investor-heavy resale competition | Strong Potential |
| 7 | Richmond | 2-bed unit | 5.6% | 4.1% | A$650,000 | A$3,033 | A$10,000 | 95% | 19 days | Flatmates and young couples | Body-corporate fee creep | Strong Potential |
| 8 | Richmond | 3-bed unit | 4.7% | 3.4% | A$1,155,000 | A$4,550 | A$15,000 | 92% | 29 days | Affluent sharers and small families | Narrow renter pool at this price point | Moderate Appeal |
| 9 | Kew | 1-bed unit | 6.0% | 4.2% | A$425,000 | A$2,123 | A$7,500 | 96% | 18 days | Singles near hospitals and campuses | Limited tenant pool depth | Good Potential |
| 10 | Kew | 2-bed unit | 4.4% | 3.1% | A$701,550 | A$2,578 | A$9,000 | 95% | 19 days | Couples near elite schools | Softer resale liquidity | Moderate Appeal |
| 11 | Kew | 3-bed house | 2.7% | 2.0% | A$2,107,500 | A$3,891 | A$15,000 | 95% | 17 days | Families chasing school zones | Expensive upkeep on family homes | Limited Appeal |
| 12 | Sydney CBD | 1-bed unit | 5.7% | 4.0% | A$755,000 | A$3,575 | A$13,000 | 96% | 18 days | CBD workers and students | New-stock competition from towers | Good Potential |
| 13 | Sydney CBD | 2-bed unit | 5.2% | 3.8% | A$1,200,000 | A$5,200 | A$17,000 | 94% | 23 days | Professional sharers in the CBD | Luxury-unit supply swings | Good Potential |
| 14 | Surry Hills | 1-bed unit | 4.9% | 3.7% | A$790,000 | A$3,250 | A$10,000 | 96% | 15 days | Creative and tech professionals | Higher entry price compresses returns | Good Potential |
| 15 | Surry Hills | 2-bed unit | 4.4% | 3.6% | A$1,475,000 | A$4,550 | A$12,500 | 96% | 15 days | Professional couples near the CBD | Premium pricing limits yield ceiling | Good Potential |
| 16 | Surry Hills | 3-bed unit | 3.5% | 2.9% | A$2,250,000 | A$6,565 | A$15,000 | 93% | 34 days | Executives wanting large inner-city space | Thin luxury renter depth | Moderate Appeal |
| 17 | Surry Hills | 2-bed terrace | 3.2% | 2.4% | A$1,950,000 | A$4,333 | A$16,000 | 96% | 14 days | Couples wanting walkable terraces | Heritage maintenance exposure | Moderate Appeal |
| 18 | Randwick | 1-bed unit | 4.4% | 3.4% | A$886,000 | A$3,250 | A$8,500 | 96% | 17 days | Hospital staff and students | Price-sensitive renter turnover | Good Potential |
| 19 | Randwick | 2-bed unit | 4.3% | 3.5% | A$1,285,000 | A$3,900 | A$10,000 | 95% | 18 days | Medical staff and professional couples | Rising eastern-suburbs entry prices | Good Potential |
| 20 | Randwick | 3-bed unit | 4.0% | 3.3% | A$1,985,000 | A$5,733 | A$14,000 | 94% | 26 days | Families near schools and the coast | Narrow high-budget renter pool | Moderate Appeal |
| 21 | Mosman | 1-bed unit | 4.2% | 3.1% | A$802,500 | A$2,817 | A$8,500 | 96% | 14 days | Downsizers and local professionals | Boutique-block renovation bills | Good Potential |
| 22 | Mosman | 2-bed unit | 3.1% | 2.4% | A$1,405,000 | A$3,683 | A$11,000 | 95% | 18 days | Downsizers and affluent couples | Prestige pricing compresses yield | Moderate Appeal |
| 23 | Mosman | 3-bed unit | 2.9% | 2.4% | A$2,935,000 | A$6,067 | A$16,000 | 93% | 30 days | Downsizers wanting harbour apartments | Long resale periods at the top end | Limited Appeal |
| 24 | Mosman | 3-bed house | 2.3% | 1.7% | A$3,884,000 | A$7,583 | A$24,000 | 96% | 15 days | Affluent families near harbour schools | Very low yield on a large capital outlay | Limited Appeal |
| 25 | Marrickville | 1-bed unit | 3.9% | 2.9% | A$780,000 | A$2,743 | A$8,000 | 96% | 14 days | Inner West singles and couples | Entry prices rose quickly in recent years | Moderate Appeal |
| 26 | Marrickville | 2-bed unit | 3.4% | 2.5% | A$1,090,000 | A$3,120 | A$9,500 | 95% | 18 days | Couples and sharers in the Inner West | Slower yield after recent price gains | Moderate Appeal |
| 27 | Marrickville | 3-bed house | 2.6% | 1.9% | A$2,150,000 | A$4,723 | A$15,000 | 95% | 20 days | Families wanting Inner West houses | Yield compressed by rising house prices | Limited Appeal |
| 28 | Paddington | 1-bed unit | 4.0% | 2.9% | A$849,000 | A$2,817 | A$9,000 | 96% | 14 days | Professionals wanting an east-side lifestyle | Premium pricing versus rental income | Moderate Appeal |
| 29 | Paddington | 2-bed terrace | 2.5% | 1.8% | A$2,515,000 | A$5,148 | A$16,000 | 96% | 15 days | High-income couples wanting character terraces | Heritage renovation surprises | Limited Appeal |
| 30 | Paddington | 3-bed terrace | 2.3% | 1.7% | A$3,745,000 | A$7,098 | A$22,000 | 95% | 19 days | Affluent families in prestige east Sydney | Very low cash flow at this entry price | Limited Appeal |
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Key insights about rental yields in Australia
Insights
- Melbourne CBD 1-bed units deliver around 8.2% gross yield in March 2026, which is roughly double what you get from a Paddington or Mosman house in Sydney. The asset class matters far more than the city.
- Inner-Melbourne suburbs like South Yarra and Richmond consistently outperform inner-Sydney suburbs on gross yield, even though both city markets have similar vacancy tightness and occupancy rates.
- The gap between the best and worst yields in this Australian dataset is nearly 6 percentage points. A Melbourne CBD 1-bed unit at 8.2% and a Paddington terrace at 2.3% are technically in the same country but in a completely different investment universe.
- Australia's national rental vacancy rate was around 1.1% in February 2026, which is extremely tight. That keeps occupancy rates high across nearly all suburbs in this dataset, but it does not mean all suburbs produce good yields.
- Net yield after ownership fees drops sharply in Sydney prestige markets. A Mosman 3-bed house goes from 2.3% gross down to just 1.7% net once fees are included, leaving almost no margin for surprises.
- Kew units outperform Kew family houses by a large margin. A Kew 1-bed unit produces 6.0% gross while a Kew 3-bed house produces only 2.7% gross. In Australian school-zone suburbs, unit investors win on yield even if house buyers win on lifestyle.
- Surry Hills and Randwick sit in an interesting middle zone for Australian investors: leasing is fast, occupancy is at 95 to 96%, and net yields are in the 3.4 to 4.0% range, which is modest but much better than prestige Sydney.
- Marrickville's 1-bed units now trade at A$780,000, which has pushed gross yield down to 3.9%. A few years ago this suburb looked like a value play for Australian investors. That window has largely closed.
- Large luxury units in Australia consistently take longer to lease. A Surry Hills 3-bed unit averages 34 days to rent, and a Melbourne CBD 2-bed unit averages 27 days, versus 14 to 17 days for 1-bed stock in the same suburbs. Bigger is not always better for rental speed.
- The A$24,000 annual ownership fee on a Mosman house is the highest in this dataset. That single cost item wipes out a significant chunk of rental income and is a number many first-time investors in Australia underestimate when they look at prestige property.
- Richmond 1-bed and 2-bed units are among the best-balanced entries for Australian investors in 2026, combining yields above 5.5% gross, occupancy at 95 to 96%, and leasing times under 20 days. This combination is rare in Sydney.
- Buying a Mosman 3-bed house to rent out in Australia in March 2026 means committing nearly A$3.9 million to earn A$7,583 per month in rent. That is a gross yield of 2.3%. Most term deposits would give you more income with far less risk or effort.
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About our methodology
Australia's residential property market is large, fragmented, and expensive to enter. That makes reliable yield data especially important before you commit to a purchase. We took a careful, source-first approach to this article, and we explain exactly how we built the numbers you see above.
We also believe it is important to show our reasoning. It is one of the ways we make our work solid, transparent, and rigorous, just as you will see in our real estate pack about Australia.
First, please note that this data is updated regularly, so what you see here reflects the current values as of today.
In order to get reliable data, we applied a strict source filter. We only used authoritative, verifiable sources, not random listings or unsupported figures. More on that point below.
For each Australian suburb and property type, we aggregated the freshest purchase price and monthly rent data available. Weekly advertised rents were converted to monthly figures using weekly rent multiplied by 52 and divided by 12. When possible, we cross-checked multiple sources to confirm the same range.
This allowed us to estimate rental yield before costs. That is the gross yield, based on annual rent versus purchase price.
We then estimated rental yield after costs. That is the net yield, after recurring ownership and operating expenses.
These expenses vary by suburb and property type. That is why two areas with similar rents can still produce very different net returns in Australia.
For example, CBD towers in Melbourne and Sydney carry heavier strata and building management costs. Older terrace houses in Paddington or Surry Hills carry higher maintenance and insurance exposure. And prestige properties often have larger gaps between gross and net yield than the headline numbers suggest.
We also estimated ownership annual fees by combining the main recurring costs for each asset type. This includes items such as strata levies where relevant, council rates, landlord insurance, and a maintenance allowance. These estimates were not applied as a single flat number across Australia. They were adjusted by suburb and property type to reflect local conditions.
Occupancy estimates were then set from each suburb's average leasing speed, cross-checked against Australia's still-tight rental vacancy backdrop in early 2026.
This table should therefore be read as a structured market estimate, not as an exact guarantee of future performance. Honesty, quality, and rigor are at the core of our work, and they are also what you will find in our real estate pack about Australia.
What sources have we used to write this blog article?
Whether it's in our blog articles or the market analyses included in our real estate pack about Australia, we rely on verifiable sources and a transparent methodology.
We also aim to be fully transparent, so below we've listed the authoritative sources we used, and explained how we used them and the methods behind our estimates.
| Source | Why it's reliable | How we used it |
|---|---|---|
| ABS Rental Market Insights | The Australian Bureau of Statistics is the national statistics office, making it one of the safest sources for Australia-wide rental context. | We used it to anchor this article in the official Australian rental-market backdrop. We also used it to sanity-check that suburb-level tightness and rent pressure fit the national pattern. |
| ABS Total Value of Dwellings | ABS is authoritative for Australia's housing stock and overall dwelling values at a national and state level. | We used it to frame Australia as a high-value residential market with strong capital-city weight. We also used it as a macro cross-check against private-sector price datasets. |
| RBA Rental Market Bulletin | The Reserve Bank of Australia is authoritative for economic interpretation and housing-market analysis in Australia. | We used it to understand how rental tightness, turnover, and pricing pressure behave across Australian markets. We also used it to keep the rental-yield discussion realistic for non-professional buyers. |
| Cotality Home Value Index, March 2026 | Cotality is one of Australia's most widely used institutional housing-data providers, relied on by lenders and analysts. | We used it to cross-check the national and capital-city direction of prices, rents, and gross yields in March 2026. We also used it to confirm that gross yields remain modest nationally, especially after holding costs. |
| SQM Research Vacancy Rates, February 2026 | SQM Research is a recognized Australian housing-data provider, especially known for its rental vacancy tracking. | We used it to anchor occupancy assumptions against a very tight national rental backdrop. We also used it to avoid overstating vacancy downtime in suburbs where leasing demand is strong. |
| Domain Top 10 Popular Suburbs in Australia 2025 | Domain is a major national property portal with transparent and publicly reported search-interest data. | We used it to build the core neighborhood list for this article. We also used it because the suburbs covered here needed to reflect genuine buyer and investor interest, not arbitrary picks. |
| Domain Most Popular Suburbs by Capital City 2025 | It adds city-by-city search behavior data from one of Australia's two dominant residential portals. | We used it to cross-check that the national shortlist also reflects city-level demand patterns. We also used it to avoid including suburbs with weak practical relevance to buyers and renters. |
| REA Melbourne CBD Suburb Profile | REA Group is one of Australia's two dominant residential portals and its suburb profiles are widely used by buyers, renters, and investors. | We used it for Melbourne CBD prices, rents, yield snapshots, and leasing speed by property type. We also used it to identify which unit formats dominate the local rental market. |
| REA Sydney CBD Suburb Profile | Same reason as above: it is one of the main live market datasets used by participants in the Australian property market. | We used it for Sydney CBD price, rent, yield, and leasing-speed data. We also used it to confirm that unit-heavy stock remains the practical focus for investors there. |
| ATO Rental Properties Guide 2025 | The Australian Taxation Office is authoritative on which ownership and rental expenses apply and how they are categorized in Australia. | We used it to structure the holding-cost logic behind our net-yield estimates. We also used it to make sure our fee assumptions reflect real Australian ownership cost categories, not guesswork. |
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