Blakehurst

Development Activity

Schools in Blakehurst iICSEA: school advantage index. 1000 = national avg, higher = more advantaged

Demographics

The median age of 43 is 3.0 years above the national figure, and the trajectory is gradually aging, with the senior share up 2.8 points and the working-age share down 0.5 points over the decade. Overseas-born residents reach 33.9%, which is 12.3 points above national, and the ancestry mix is unusually balanced: Chinese (1,269) and Greek (1,221) lead, ahead of English (963) and Italian (414). The most spoken non-English languages follow that pattern, led by Greek (374), then Cantonese (250) and Mandarin (250). University qualifications at 48.3% run 18.2 points above national. Average household size is 3.1, a full 0.6 above national, because couples with children (2,299 families) outnumber couples without children (1,110) by more than two to one, reinforcing the large-family profile.

Tenure skews strongly to ownership: 46.1% own outright and 39.3% carry a mortgage, leaving only 14.7% renting, a far higher owner share than most metropolitan Sydney suburbs. The stock is 86.0% separate houses, with apartments at 6.6% and semi-detached at 7.4%, and the bedroom mix confirms the scale, as 56.6% of homes have four or more bedrooms and 33.0% have three. The PSI-derived median held at $2,100,000 across both 2024 and 2025, a flat result rather than the growth seen in faster-moving markets. Mortgage-to-income sits at 29.9%, just under the stress line, while rent-to-income at 24.3% stays comfortable, and the high outright-ownership rate points to long-held family wealth rather than a churn of recent leveraged buyers.

Community Profile

Economy & Employment

The resident workforce concentrates in stable, higher-paying sectors: Healthcare leads at 15.8% (351 workers), Professional/Tech follows at 14.5% (321), then Education at 10.3% and Finance at 10.2%, with Construction at 9.3%. By occupation, Professionals (950) and Managers (572) form the largest groups, consistent with the decile 8 IEO score for education and occupation. Unemployment is low at 3.9% and the full-time employment rate is 63.7%. Participation reads just 48.7%, well below what the income would suggest, because the aging profile leaves 2,045 residents not in the labour force. One anomaly worth noting: the IER economic-resources score sits at decile 6 against decile 8 on IRSAD, a gap driven by the asset-rich but lower-cashflow profile of older outright owners, whose wealth is in property rather than active income.

Transport to Work

Transport here is car-first: 88.1% of commuters drive, well above the national reliance on cars, while only 2.7% take public transport and 1.8% walk or cycle, a function of the riverside, low-density layout at 2,886 residents per km2. The suburb scores decile 8 on IRSAD, a high advantage tier nationally, though the IRSD relative-disadvantage measure sits lower at decile 5, indicating a wider spread of circumstances than the headline wealth suggests. Volunteering runs at 10.9% and 6.5% of residents (409 people) need daily assistance, consistent with the older median age of 43. No schools are recorded inside the 2.3 km2 boundary in this dataset, so families rely on institutions in neighbouring suburbs, a practical trade-off for the spacious detached-housing setting.

Population Forecast

Blakehurst grew 11.8% over the past decade and is now expanding at roughly 0.87% a year, a slow-and-steady pace that classifies it as an established suburb rather than a growth corridor. The sole positive driver is overseas migration at about 784 net arrivals a year, which more than offsets a net internal outflow of 335, so the area gains residents through international rather than domestic movement. The gentrification stage reads early signs at a score of 35, with the young-adult share down 2.0 points and the senior share up 2.8 points, a maturing rather than gentrifying trend. Affordability improved from 69.9% in 2011 to 62.8% in 2021, though it remains high relative to most markets, and real incomes rose 10.9% over the decade, modest growth that keeps the established-wealth profile intact.

National Ranking iPercentile rank among ~15,000 AU suburbs. 90% = higher than 90% of suburbs

How Blakehurst compares to ~15,000 Australian suburbs

Frequently Asked Questions