South Yarra
Across 3.55 square kilometres at 7,055 residents per sq km, 79.6% of all dwellings are apartments and 63.5% of households rent, putting South Yarra at the dense renter-majority pole of inner-east Melbourne despite a $2.15M house median. The SEIFA fingerprint is the cleanest tell of the suburb's true profile: IEO decile 10 with score 1170 (education in the top national decile) sits against IER decile 2 at score 926, an eight-decile gap that no other Stonnington suburb prints. That split reflects 65.9% university qualification (35.8 percentage points above the 30.1% national rate) paired with personal wages near $1,395 weekly that read median-renter rather than wealth-resident. The 33-year median age runs 7 years below the national 40, household size at 1.7 is 0.8 below national, and the population has grown 90.5% in a decade, the steepest expansion of any top-IEO Melbourne suburb. South Yarra is not Toorak's southern flank but a renter-young-professional zone wearing a luxury postcode.
Population
25,028
Median Age
33.0
Household IncomeiMedian weekly household income (ABS Census)
$2,063/wk
DAs (12 months)iDevelopment Applications lodged in the past year
296
Median House
$2.1M
Apr-Jun 2024
South Yarra's $2.15M house median is a misleading anchor: only 7.4% of dwellings are separate houses against 79.6% apartments and 12.8% semi-detached, so the headline figure prices stock most buyers will never compete for. Two-bedroom apartments dominate at 46.7% of the bedroom mix with another 32.3% at 0-1 bedrooms, meaning 79.0% of stock is sub-three-bedroom and unsuited to family upgraders. House prices have corrected 11.2% from the Jul-Sep 2023 peak of $2.42M to $2.15M (Apr-Jun 2024), a milder pullback than Toorak's 21.7% retracement from $7.1M. Mortgage-to-income at 23.5% sits below the 30% stress flag and runs lower than Toorak's 28.7%, but only because so few residents own: 18.2% mortgaged and 18.3% outright against Toorak's 23.5% and 44.2%. Buyers chasing the houses pay roughly 20x household income, less than half Toorak's 42x ratio. The genuine entry point is a 2BR apartment, where Chapel Street walkability commands the premium over Richmond or Prahran.
For Buyers
South Yarra's $2.15M house median is a misleading anchor: only 7.4% of dwellings are separate houses against 79.6% apartments and 12.8% semi-detached, so the headline figure prices stock most buyers will never compete for. Two-bedroom apartments dominate at 46.7% of the bedroom mix with another 32.3% at 0-1 bedrooms, meaning 79.0% of stock is sub-three-bedroom and unsuited to family upgraders. House prices have corrected 11.2% from the Jul-Sep 2023 peak of $2.42M to $2.15M (Apr-Jun 2024), a milder pullback than Toorak's 21.7% retracement from $7.1M. Mortgage-to-income at 23.5% sits below the 30% stress flag and runs lower than Toorak's 28.7%, but only because so few residents own: 18.2% mortgaged and 18.3% outright against Toorak's 23.5% and 44.2%. Buyers chasing the houses pay roughly 20x household income, less than half Toorak's 42x ratio. The genuine entry point is a 2BR apartment, where Chapel Street walkability commands the premium over Richmond or Prahran.
For Investors
The investor read pivots on a 21.3% rental vacancy rate, more than 12 times the 1.7% Melbourne benchmark and structurally higher than Glen Iris at 1.4% or Brunswick at 2.1%. With 63.5% of households renting (compared to Toorak's 32.3% and the 30.6% national rate), South Yarra is the deepest renter market in the inner-east benchmark, yet $415 weekly median rent against a $2.15M house median produces a 1.0% gross yield, less than half Brunswick at 2.8%. The yield logic only works on the apartment side, where investment-grade 2BRs at $700K-$900K return roughly 3.5-4.0% gross before strata. Forecast migration shows +689 overseas net annually offset by -155 internal outflow, the strongest overseas-driven inflow of any benchmark Melbourne suburb and 2x Toorak's +336. With 124 planning permits lodged in 12 months across 25,028 residents, supply pressure persists; rent growth at 10.4% over the recent shift period confirms the demand pool exists but is sliced finely across 79.6% apartment stock.
Development Activity
Total DAs
337
Last 12 Months
296
YoY ChangeiYear-over-year change in DA lodgements
+886.7%
Avg DA CostiAverage estimated cost per DA in the past year
$2.3M
Monthly DA Lodgements
DA Categories
Schools in South Yarra iICSEA: school advantage index. 1000 = national avg, higher = more advantaged
Christ Church Grammar School
Prep-6 · 287 students
Melbourne High School
9-12 · 1402 students
Melbourne Girls Grammar
Prep-12 · 1046 students
South Yarra Primary School
Prep-6 · 435 students
Centre for Higher Education Studies
10-12 · 468 students
Demographics
South Yarra runs cosmopolitan-Anglo with a younger, more global skew than its luxury neighbours. English ancestry leads at 7,845 followed by Irish (3,275), Scottish (2,648) and Chinese (2,573), giving the suburb a Chinese ancestry share roughly parallel to Toorak in proportional terms but on a much larger base. 40.3% of residents were born overseas, 18.7 percentage points above the national 21.6% and 7.3pp above Toorak's 33.0%, marking it the most migrant-dense of the inner-east benchmark group. 65.9% of adults hold university qualifications against the 30.1% national rate, a 35.8pp gap that exceeds Toorak's 33.2pp gap and ranks at the top of the IEO decile. Top non-English languages are Mandarin (516), Greek (181), Cantonese (166), French (138) and Italian (130), with Mandarin running 1.5x Toorak's count. The household composition signal is the loudest: 54.6% of families are couples without children and average household size is 1.7, the singles-and-DINK profile that the apartment stock structurally enforces.
Age Distribution
Bedrooms
Dwelling Structure
7.4%
Houses
12.8%
Townhouse
79.6%
Apartment
Tenure
South Yarra runs apartment-monoculture: 79.6% apartments, 12.8% semi-detached and just 7.4% separate houses, so 92.4% of dwellings are non-house against Toorak's 69.6% and Glen Iris's 25.5%. Tenure splits 63.5% renting, 18.2% mortgaged and 18.3% owned outright, an inversion of the 31% outright national rate that mirrors Toorak's 44.2% outright share at a much lower wealth tier. Bedroom mix concentrates extreme: 32.3% at 0-1 bedrooms, 46.7% at 2 bedrooms, 16.7% at 3 bedrooms and only 4.3% at 4-plus, compared to Toorak's 22.4% four-plus share. Prices have moved from $1.35M (2013) to $2.15M (Apr-Jun 2024), a 59.0% lift over 14 years and a 3.4% compound annual rate, well below Toorak's 4.8% CAGR. The peak of $2.42M in Jul-Sep 2023 has corrected 11.2%, a softer retracement than Toorak's 21.7%. House price-to-income sits at roughly 20x annual household income of $107,276, half Toorak's 42x ratio.
Median House Price Trend
Source: State Valuer-General
Mortgage / mo
$2,100
Rent / wk
$415
HH Size
1.7
Personal Income / wk
$1,395
Vacancy Ratei% of dwellings unoccupied on Census night (ABS 2021)
21.3%
Unoccupied
3,544
Rent / IncomeiMedian rent as % of household income. Over 30% = housing stress
20.1%
Mortgage / IncomeiMedian mortgage as % of household income. Over 30% = housing stress
23.5%
Community Profile
Languages Spoken at Home
Ancestry
Household Composition
54.6%
Couples, no children
12,978
Total families
Economy & Employment
South Yarra is a Professional/Tech-and-Finance dormitory for the Melbourne CBD with the SEIFA anomaly that most differentiates it from peer luxury suburbs. Industry concentrates in Professional/Tech at 22.5% (3,012 workers), Healthcare at 13.7% (1,839), Education at 9.0% (1,211), Finance at 8.4% (1,129) and Retail at 7.1% (951), so the top three industries absorb 45.2% of employed residents. Occupationally, 7,430 Professionals and 3,079 Managers represent 68.2% of the workforce, well above the 38% national share for those two categories combined. Unemployment is 4.3% on participation of 69.3%, higher labour engagement than Toorak's 56.2%. The SEIFA tell is unambiguous: IEO decile 10 with score 1170 (top decile education) against IER decile 2 with score 926, an eight-decile gap that signals the resident base is education-elite but wage-modest, the renter-young-professional profile rather than the asset-rich old-money pattern that gives Toorak its IER-7 gap. IRSAD sits at decile 10 and IRSD at decile 9, confirming overall advantage on disadvantage measures.
Unemployment
2.8%
Labour Force
4,756
Unemployed
132
Quarterly Trend
Source: SALM Dec-25
Socio-Economic Indexes (SEIFA)iABS index ranking suburbs from 1 (most disadvantaged) to 10 (most advantaged)
Full-time
74.0%
Part-time
21.7%
Participation
69.3%
Employed
15,437
Occupations
Top Industries
University
65.9%
Postgraduate
20.9%
Born Overseas
40.3%
Dwellings
13,067
Transport to Work
Five schools sit inside or directly adjacent to South Yarra and all score ICSEA above 1079, putting the entire local system above the national median of 1000. Melbourne High School leads in scale at ICSEA 1195 with 1,402 enrolments (Government, secondary, the largest top-decile public secondary in Melbourne's inner-east), and Christ Church Grammar (Independent, ICSEA 1213, 287) and Melbourne Girls Grammar (Independent, 1181, 1,046) anchor the elite private options. South Yarra Primary at ICSEA 1152 sits in the top decile too. Crime runs at 129.8 per 1,000 residents (3,249 incidents over 12 months), more than 2x Toorak's 57.9 per 1,000 and well above the Greater Melbourne 60-70 band. The mix is 66.4% property and deception offences (2,157 of 3,249) and 13.5% crimes against the person (439), the Chapel Street nightlife signature. Public transport mode share is 15.6% against Toorak's 5.2%, with walking-and-cycling at 26.2%, reflecting station-and-tram access plus dense walkable retail. IRSAD sits at decile 10.
Drive
55.2%
Public Transport
15.6%
Walk / Cycle
26.2%
Work from Home
N/A
Population Forecast
+2.9%/yr
(+399 people/yr)
High GrowthSouth Yarra is a high-growth, overseas-migration-driven suburb in unambiguous expansion mode. The forecast trend annual growth rate is 2.9% (about 399 persons per year on a 13,779 base), running roughly 5x Toorak's 0.58% and well above the Greater Melbourne average near 1.6%. Population has grown 90.5% over a decade, the steepest expansion of any top-IEO Melbourne suburb and far above Toorak's plateauing trajectory. The population shift is dominated by overseas migration at +689 net annually offset by -155 net internal outflow, so domestic households are leaving while international arrivals more than replace them. Working-age share has lifted +1.4 percentage points over a decade while senior share fell -0.7pp and young share moved +0.1pp, a hold-the-young-professional-base trajectory rather than aging. Affordability has improved from 34.9 (2011) to 30.2 (2021), a counter-intuitive result driven by income growth running ahead of rent growth in the same window. The gentrification score sits at 5/100, classified Not gentrifying because the suburb gentrified two decades ago.
Historical + Forecast
Hamilton-Perry + Holt smoothing on ERP 2001-2025
Age Cohort Forecast
Primary Driver
Overseas Migration
Net Overseas / yr
+689
Net Internal / yr
-155
Gentrification Signal
New development
Safety & Crime
Total Offences
3,249
Year ending June 2024
Rate per 1,000 People
129.8
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 South Yarra compares to ~15,000 Australian suburbs
Frequently Asked Questions
Is South Yarra a good suburb to live in?
For young professionals and couples-without-kids wanting Chapel Street dining and T2-line station access, yes. 65.9% of adults are university-educated (35.8 percentage points above national), Melbourne High School sits at ICSEA 1195 (top decile vs national median 1000), and 54.6% of families are couples without children. The trade-offs are crime at 129.8 per 1,000 (more than 2x Toorak) and 79.6% of dwellings being apartments.
What is the median house price in South Yarra?
The median house price is $2,150,000 as of Apr-Jun 2024, down 11.2% from the Jul-Sep 2023 peak of $2.42M but 59.0% higher than the 2013 trough of $1.35M. The 14-year compound annual growth rate is 3.4%, below Toorak's 4.8% CAGR. The figure prices an unrepresentative 7.4% of stock since 79.6% of dwellings are apartments; 2-bedroom apartments at $700K-$900K reflect the actual entry price for most buyers.
What schools are in South Yarra?
Five schools serve South Yarra, all above ICSEA 1079 (national median 1000). Christ Church Grammar leads at 1213 (Independent, primary, 287), Melbourne High School at 1195 (Government, secondary, 1,402, the largest top-decile public secondary in inner-east Melbourne), Melbourne Girls Grammar at 1181 (Independent, combined, 1,046), South Yarra Primary at 1152 (Government, 435), and the Centre for Higher Education Studies at 1079 (Government, 468).
Is South Yarra safe?
South Yarra's crime rate runs well above Greater Melbourne averages. Total recorded offences over 12 months were 3,249, equivalent to 129.8 per 1,000 residents, more than 2x Toorak's 57.9 per 1,000 and above the Greater Melbourne 60-70 band. The mix skews opportunistic: 2,157 property and deception offences (66.4% of total) versus 439 crimes against the person (13.5%) and 251 drug offences. The pattern reflects Chapel Street's nightlife concentration and high daytime non-resident foot traffic.
Is South Yarra good for property investment?
South Yarra is a yield-and-overseas-demand play, not a capital growth bet. Weekly rent of $415 against a $2.15M house median produces a 1.0% gross yield, but apartment investors targeting 2-bedroom stock at $700K-$900K return 3.5-4.0% gross. Vacancy at 21.3% runs 12x the Melbourne 1.7% benchmark, the highest among the inner-east benchmark group. Forecast migration is +689 overseas net annually (2x Toorak's +336), so apartment demand depends on offshore arrivals.
How is South Yarra's population changing?
South Yarra is one of Melbourne's fastest-growing inner suburbs. Population has grown 90.5% over a decade and is forecast at 2.9% annual growth (about 399 residents per year), roughly 5x Toorak's 0.58% rate and well above the Greater Melbourne 1.6% average. Migration runs +689 overseas net offset by -155 internal outflow, so international arrivals replace departing domestic households. Working-age share is up 1.4 percentage points over a decade while senior share fell 0.7pp.
What languages are spoken in South Yarra?
40.3% of residents were born overseas, 18.7 percentage points above the national 21.6% and 7.3pp above Toorak's 33.0%. After English the top languages spoken at home are Mandarin (516 speakers, 1.5x Toorak's count), Greek (181), Cantonese (166), French (138) and Italian (130). English ancestry still leads at 7,845, but Chinese ancestry at 2,573 outranks Scottish (2,648) closely and signals a cosmopolitan-Anglo mix rather than migrant-majority dominance.
What is the development activity like in South Yarra?
124 planning permits were lodged in the past 12 months across 25,028 residents, equivalent to roughly 1 application per 202 residents, more active than Toorak's 1-per-233 density. Recent samples skew toward Development Contribution Plan levies and infill apartment conditions. With 79.6% of dwellings already apartments and the suburb running 7,055 residents per sq km (one of Melbourne's highest), future supply continues coming from high-density infill rather than greenfield.
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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