Kew
Ten schools sit inside 10.48 square kilometres of Boroondara riverbend, the densest private-school cluster of any Australian suburb at one campus per 2,450 residents, and every one of them scores ICSEA above 1125 (national median 1000). That is the structural anchor behind Kew's $2.82M house median and 92.3rd-percentile household income ($2,497 weekly). The 24,499 residents split 50.5% separate houses against 25.7% apartments and 23.6% semi-detached, so nearly half the stock is non-house despite the leafy mansion reputation. SEIFA reads top decile on IEO, IRSAD and IRSD but only decile 8 on IER, the same asset-rich gap that distinguishes Toorak's old-money profile from Glen Iris's dual-professional structure. Prices have corrected 8.3% from the Jan-Mar 2024 peak of $3.08M, a softer pullback than Toorak's 21.7% but still ahead of Glen Iris at 5.4% below peak.
Population
24,499
Median Age
41.0
Household IncomeiMedian weekly household income (ABS Census)
$2,497/wk
DAs (12 months)iDevelopment Applications lodged in the past year
281
Median House
$2.8M
Apr-Jun 2024
The $2.82M house median is up 61.1% from the 2013 trough of $1.75M, a 3.5% compound annual rate over 14 years that runs below Glen Iris's 4.5% CAGR and well below Toorak's 4.8%, so Kew has underperformed its inner-east blue-chip peers on long-run capital growth. Stock leans larger than peer suburbs: 34.0% of dwellings carry four or more bedrooms, ahead of Glen Iris's 33.4% and far above Toorak's 22.4%, reflecting Kew's family-upgrader rather than empty-nester profile. Mortgage-to-income sits at 27.7%, just below the 30% stress threshold and lower than mortgage-belt suburbs that push past 35%, sustained by the $3,301 weekly family income (top 4% nationally). Ownership splits 40.7% outright, 29.9% mortgaged and 29.4% renting, with the outright share running 9.7 percentage points above the 31% national average and signalling an established-wealth cohort rather than first-home stretch buyers. Price-to-income runs at 22x annual household earnings of $129,844, similar to Toorak's 42x being roughly double but well above Berwick-style mortgage belts at 7-8x.
For Buyers
The $2.82M house median is up 61.1% from the 2013 trough of $1.75M, a 3.5% compound annual rate over 14 years that runs below Glen Iris's 4.5% CAGR and well below Toorak's 4.8%, so Kew has underperformed its inner-east blue-chip peers on long-run capital growth. Stock leans larger than peer suburbs: 34.0% of dwellings carry four or more bedrooms, ahead of Glen Iris's 33.4% and far above Toorak's 22.4%, reflecting Kew's family-upgrader rather than empty-nester profile. Mortgage-to-income sits at 27.7%, just below the 30% stress threshold and lower than mortgage-belt suburbs that push past 35%, sustained by the $3,301 weekly family income (top 4% nationally). Ownership splits 40.7% outright, 29.9% mortgaged and 29.4% renting, with the outright share running 9.7 percentage points above the 31% national average and signalling an established-wealth cohort rather than first-home stretch buyers. Price-to-income runs at 22x annual household earnings of $129,844, similar to Toorak's 42x being roughly double but well above Berwick-style mortgage belts at 7-8x.
For Investors
The 11.9% rental vacancy reading is the headline weakness, sitting 7x above Melbourne's 1.7% benchmark and similar to Glen Iris's 10.0% surplus but well below Toorak's 19.8% apartment glut. Median rent of $476 weekly against a $2.82M median produces a gross yield of 0.88%, comparable to Glen Iris at 0.96% and roughly double Toorak's 0.45%, but still less than a third of Melbourne's 3% benchmark. With 50 planning permits lodged in the past 12 months across 24,499 residents (one application per 490 residents) and 25.7% of stock already in apartments plus 23.6% semi-detached, supply continues compounding in the medium-density tier. The 29.4% renting share is roughly on par with Toorak's 32.3% and Glen Iris's 28.3%, but tenant demand for two-bedroom investment-grade flats in a $2.82M postcode does not scale linearly with new stock. Kew works only as a capital-growth play for buyers willing to absorb the yield gap through negative gearing; cashflow positions do not pencil at these ratios.
Development Activity
Total DAs
301
Last 12 Months
281
YoY ChangeiYear-over-year change in DA lodgements
+3022.2%
Avg DA CostiAverage estimated cost per DA in the past year
N/A
Monthly DA Lodgements
DA Categories
Schools in Kew iICSEA: school advantage index. 1000 = national avg, higher = more advantaged
Ruyton Girls' School
Prep-12 · 854 students
Methodist Ladies' College
Prep-12 · 2169 students
Trinity Grammar School Kew
Prep-12 · 1577 students
Carey Baptist Grammar School
Prep-12 · 2564 students
Sacred Heart School
Prep-6 · 191 students
Demographics
Kew runs Anglo-established with a meaningful Chinese overlay that ranks second across ancestries. English leads at 7,127, followed by Chinese (3,974), Irish (3,237) and Scottish (2,414), a Chinese-Irish ordering that places Asian ancestry higher proportionally than Toorak's near-tie at 1,419 Chinese against 1,421 Irish on a smaller 12,817 base. 31.7% were born overseas, 10.1 percentage points above the national 21.6%, and 64.5% of adults hold university qualifications, 34.4pp above the 30.1% national rate. The standout cultural marker is religion: 10,505 residents identify as Christian (42.9% of population), the dominant single-denomination concentration in any inner-east Melbourne suburb and the structural anchor behind the Catholic and Independent-Anglican school cluster (Xavier College, Carey Baptist, Genazzano, Sacred Heart). After English the top languages are Mandarin (897), Greek (349), Cantonese (306), Italian (172) and Hindi (78), a cosmopolitan-Anglo profile that contrasts with migrant-majority middle-ring suburbs.
Age Distribution
Bedrooms
Dwelling Structure
50.5%
Houses
23.6%
Townhouse
25.7%
Apartment
Tenure
Kew's stock splits 50.5% separate houses, 25.7% apartments and 23.6% semi-detached, so 49.3% of dwellings are non-house, roughly matching Glen Iris's 45% non-house mix and well below Toorak's 69.6%. Tenure runs 40.7% owned outright (9.7pp above the 31% national average and 2.8pp above Glen Iris), 29.9% mortgaged and 29.4% renting, a profile shaped by long-tenure family wealth rather than mortgage stretchers. Bedroom mix concentrates in three-bedroom (32.7%) and four-plus (34.0%) stock, with a 34.0% large-family share that runs ahead of Toorak's 22.4% and reflects the family-upgrader market rather than apartment density. Prices have moved from $1.75M (2013) to $2.82M (Apr-Jun 2024), a 61.1% lift over 14 years and a 3.5% compound annual rate that trails both Glen Iris (4.5%) and Toorak (4.8%). The Jan-Mar 2024 peak of $3.08M has corrected 8.3%, a softer pullback than Toorak's 21.7% but a real cooling against the long-run trend. Price-to-income runs at 22 times annual household earnings of $129,844.
Median House Price Trend
Source: State Valuer-General
Mortgage / mo
$3,000
Rent / wk
$476
HH Size
2.5
Personal Income / wk
$1,120
Vacancy Ratei% of dwellings unoccupied on Census night (ABS 2021)
11.9%
Unoccupied
1,223
Rent / IncomeiMedian rent as % of household income. Over 30% = housing stress
19.1%
Mortgage / IncomeiMedian mortgage as % of household income. Over 30% = housing stress
27.7%
Community Profile
Languages Spoken at Home
Ancestry
Household Composition
26.0%
Couples, no children
18,404
Total families
Economy & Employment
Kew is a healthcare-and-professional dormitory with a SEIFA pattern that reveals the asset-rich profile. Industry concentrates in Healthcare (21.3%, 2,117 workers), Professional/Tech (17.6%, 1,749), Education (10.7%, 1,065), Finance (7.2%, 718) and Retail (6.6%, 651), so the top three industries absorb 49.6% of employed residents, well above the national mix where Healthcare leads at 14% and Education sits near 8%. Occupationally, 5,281 Professionals and 2,465 Managers account for 64.8% of the workforce, well above the 38% national share for those two categories. Unemployment is 4.2% against 4.3% Greater Melbourne, and participation runs 60.0%, lower than Glen Iris's 64.9% partly because 6,808 residents (35.5% of working-age) are not in the labour force. The SEIFA fingerprint tells the cleanest story: IRSAD decile 10, IRSD 10, IEO 10, but IER decile 8 with score 1058, two deciles below the others. That gap signals asset-rich households drawing modest wage income relative to wealth, similar to Toorak's three-decile IER discount but less extreme.
Socio-Economic Indexes (SEIFA)iABS index ranking suburbs from 1 (most disadvantaged) to 10 (most advantaged)
Full-time
62.5%
Part-time
33.3%
Participation
60.0%
Employed
11,958
Occupations
Top Industries
University
64.5%
Postgraduate
20.9%
Born Overseas
31.7%
Dwellings
9,060
Transport to Work
Ten schools sit inside Kew and every one carries an ICSEA above 1125, putting the entire local system in the top decile nationally where the median is 1000. Ruyton Girls' leads at ICSEA 1198 (Independent, 854), followed by Methodist Ladies' College at 1190 with the largest enrolment of any Melbourne top-decile school at 2,169, then Trinity Grammar Kew (1180, 1,577), Carey Baptist (1177, 2,564) and Xavier College (1154, 1,503). The four-anchor independent cluster holds combined enrolment of 7,164, far above Toorak's four-school 4,431 total and the densest concentration of elite private capacity in any Australian suburb. Crime runs at 56.4 per 1,000 residents (1,382 incidents over 12 months), of which 71.6% are property and deception offences (989) and 12.1% crimes against the person (167), close to Toorak's 57.9 per 1,000 and well above Glen Iris's 32.3 rate. Public transport mode share is 2.8%, well below Glen Iris's 6.6% and reflecting the absence of a heavy-rail station inside the SAL boundary. Volunteering at 20.0% runs above the 14% national rate.
Drive
82.0%
Public Transport
2.8%
Walk / Cycle
9.8%
Work from Home
N/A
Safety & Crime
Total Offences
1,382
Year ending June 2024
Rate per 1,000 People
56.4
Offence Categories
Source: Crime Statistics Agency Victoria / SA Police
National Ranking iPercentile rank among ~15,000 AU suburbs. 90% = higher than 90% of suburbs
How Kew compares to ~15,000 Australian suburbs
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kew a good suburb to live in?
For families targeting elite private schools and inner-east blue-chip prestige, yes. All 10 schools sit at ICSEA 1125 or above (top decile nationally vs national median 1000), 64.5% of adults are university-educated (34.4pp above national), and household income at the 92.3rd percentile signals serious wealth. The trade-offs are cost ($2.82M median, 22x household income) and an 11.9% rental vacancy rate that runs 7x above Melbourne's 1.7% benchmark.
What is the median house price in Kew?
The median house price is $2,820,000 as of Apr-Jun 2024, down 8.3% from the Jan-Mar 2024 peak of $3,075,000 but 61.1% higher than the 2013 trough of $1,751,000. The 14-year compound annual growth rate is 3.5%, below Glen Iris at 4.5% and Toorak at 4.8%, so Kew has underperformed its inner-east blue-chip peers on long-run capital growth. Price-to-income runs at 22 times annual household earnings of $129,844.
What schools are in Kew?
Ten schools sit inside Kew, every one in the top ICSEA decile (above 1125 vs national median 1000). Ruyton Girls' leads at ICSEA 1198 (Independent, 854), followed by Methodist Ladies' College (1190, 2,169 students, largest of any Melbourne top-decile suburb), Trinity Grammar Kew (1180, 1,577), Carey Baptist (1177, 2,564) and Xavier College (1154, 1,503). The four-anchor cluster carries combined enrolment of 7,164, the densest elite private cluster in any Australian suburb.
Is Kew safe?
Kew records roughly on par with the Greater Melbourne crime rate. Total offences over 12 months were 1,382, equivalent to 56.4 per 1,000 residents, close to the 60-70 per 1,000 metropolitan band. The mix skews non-violent: 989 property and deception offences (71.6%) versus 167 crimes against the person (12.1%) and 99 drug offences. The pattern reflects opportunistic property crime targeting affluent inner-east suburbs, while Glen Iris by comparison runs lower at 32.3 per 1,000.
Is Kew good for property investment?
Kew works only as a capital-growth play, not a cashflow asset. Weekly rent of $476 against a $2.82M median produces a 0.88% gross yield, comparable to Glen Iris at 0.96% but less than a third of Melbourne's 3% average. The 11.9% vacancy rate runs 7x above the Melbourne benchmark of 1.7%, signalling apartment oversupply. Capital growth has also softened, with prices 8.3% below the Jan-Mar 2024 peak of $3.08M and a 3.5% 14-year CAGR that trails Glen Iris (4.5%) and Toorak (4.8%).
How is Kew's population changing?
Kew's 24,499 residents sit at 2,336 per square kilometre, well above the Greater Melbourne average near 510 per sq km. Median age 41 runs 1 year above the national 40, older than Glen Iris (40) but younger than Toorak (47). With 50 planning permits lodged in 12 months and 49.3% of stock already non-house, growth continues through medium-density infill rather than greenfield expansion.
What languages are spoken in Kew?
31.7% of residents were born overseas, 10.1 percentage points above the national 21.6%, but the suburb stays Anglo-majority by ancestry: English (7,127), Irish (3,237) and Scottish (2,414). Chinese ancestry at 3,974 ranks second overall, well ahead of Toorak's 1,419. After English the top languages are Mandarin (897 speakers), Greek (349), Cantonese (306), Italian (172) and Hindi (78). The migrant mix reads offshore-wealth rather than working-migration.
What is the development activity like in Kew?
50 planning permits were lodged in the past 12 months across 24,499 residents, a pipeline of roughly 1 application per 490 residents that runs below Toorak's 1-per-233 density. Recent samples skew toward part-demolition, alterations and VicSmart canopy-tree applications rather than greenfield development. With 49.3% of dwellings already non-house and heritage overlays widespread, supply comes from medium-density infill rather than wholesale redevelopment.
How to read these comparisons
Phrases like "above the national average" reference the unweighted median across Australian suburbs with more than 1,000 residents, not population-weighted national figures. Suburb-level medians are more useful for ranking suburbs against each other; ABS census headlines are population-weighted (so dominated by Sydney and Melbourne) and can read very differently.
Current baseline (refreshed 2026-05-10): median age 40, university-educated 30.1%, born overseas 21.6%, average household size 2.5 people.
Data sources: ABS 2021 Census (demographics, income, tenure), state Valuer-General (house prices), Department of Jobs SALM (unemployment), ACARA (school ICSEA), state Crime Statistics agencies (offences), council DA portals (development applications). Population forecasts use a Hamilton-Perry cohort model calibrated to ABS ERP.
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