Balmoral NSW 2283

Located in New South Wales, Balmoral sits 128 km from Sydney CBD, around 1 hour 40 minutes by car. The suburb has 730 residents, a median age of 45, and a median household income of $100,412 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the top 40% nationally. The suburb grew 1.0% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $380 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,950. Balmoral is characterised by high bushfire risk. Walkability is low.

Is Balmoral a good suburb?

Balmoral scores a C (32/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on prices and community, weaker on transit and safety.

Transit

Car-dependent

Walkability 29/100 · 128.3 km · 102 min drive to Sydney

Prices

More affordable than most

Median $838K · More affordable than 79% of NSW

Safety

High bushfire risk

Fire 95/100

Community

Advantaged

SEIFA decile 8/10 · median age 45 · 730 residents

C

Liveability Rating

32 / 100 · Ranked #1222 in NSW

Each bar is Balmoral's rank among NSW suburbs, from 0 to 100 (higher is better). Scored on 4 of 5 factors: no school data, so the other factors carry its weight.

Schools quality no data
no schools mapped
Safety
0
Bushfire High

No flood data is published for New South Wales — a blank here means we hold no data, not that there is no risk.

Socio-economic
57
Advantaged
Walkability
33
Car-dependent
CBD access
46
128.3 km · 102 min drive to Sydney
How it's calculated: Safety rank 0 × 25% + Socio-economic rank 57 × 25% + Walkability rank 33 × 15% + CBD access rank 46 × 10% = 32 / 100. Missing components rebalance the remaining weights.

How do you rate the liveability in Balmoral?

Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.

Our score

32 / 100

From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.

Residents say

…

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Median House Price

Public listings data

Balmoral's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $838,000, about 5% above where it sat a year earlier.

$838,000

14% below its 3 neighbours (median $974,000)

↑ +5.5% year-on-year

Based on 15 recorded sales in the last 24 months.

Typically sold in 22 days — median across 5 sales that recorded a listing period

By bedrooms

  • 3 bed 6 sales $814K
  • 4 bed 5 sales $929K

Rental Market

Rent agreed on new leases

Jul–Sep 2026
3-bed houses
$650/wk
48 bonds
+42% since 2021
2-bed units
$525/wk
12 bonds

Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2283 (NSW publishes bonds by postcode, which can cover several suburbs). Change since 2021 compares the median of the first four quarters with the last four. Asking rents above come from advertised listings.

Rental affordability

June quarter 2025

91 Unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 33% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2283.

SGS Rental Affordability Index: a score of 100 means rent takes 30% of income, the usual housing-stress line; lower scores are less affordable. "Region" is the capital city or the rest of the state.

Serious Road Crashes

2021–2025

No crash in Balmoral killed anyone or put anyone in hospital in 2021–2025.

Crashes are counted where they happened, so a main road through the suburb carries people passing through; this is not a measure of risk to residents. Roads are listed with 3 or more serious crashes.

Council Flood Studies

Lake Macquarie City Council has published 14 flood studies on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.

All 14 on the portal

Schools

No schools in this suburb boundary.

Walkability

Balmoral is car-dependent on foot — at 29/100, most errands require a car.

29
out of 100
Car-Dependent
Public Transport within 1 km 67
Schools within 1.5 km 60
Parks within 800 m 0
Supermarkets within 1 km 0
GPs within 1 km 0
Pharmacies within 1 km 0
Childcare within 1 km 0
Hospitals within 5 km 0

Public transport

Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Balmoral.

35
out of 100
Bus
Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
10.0 arrivals/hr
Off-peak weekday
4.0 arrivals/hr
Saturday
1.9 arrivals/hr
Median peak wait
1 min
Span of service
12.8 hours

Scheduled service only, based on the 21 October 2026 timetable. Reliability (delays, cancellations) not measured.

NBN connectivity

The internet access technology available across NBN premises in Balmoral.

71
connectivity score / 100
Top 22% in NSW
Most common
Fibre to the node
Full-fibre (FTTP) share
33%
Premises covered
298
Technology mix
Fibre to the node (FTTN) 45%
Fibre to the premises (FTTP) 33%
Fibre to the curb (FTTC) 23%

NBN Co fixed-line and fixed-wireless premises, as at 30 December 2025. Higher-quality technologies (full fibre) score above copper, wireless, and satellite. Actual speeds depend on your plan.

Amenities

No amenities mapped in this suburb boundary.

Lake Macquarie: council population

The whole council area, not just Balmoral · estimated residents
at 30 June 2025
Residents
224,540
+1.1% in a year
Change
+2,396
people since 2024
Density
346
people per km² across the council area
What drove the change
Natural increase
+246
births minus deaths
Net internal migration
+1,535
moves within Australia
Net overseas migration
+615
arrivals minus departures

The three add up to the change above. These are council-wide figures from the ABS, not figures for this suburb alone — this suburb's own population is in the census section above.

Socio-economic profile

ABS SEIFA · ranked against every suburb in Australia, and within the state
2021 census
Advantage and disadvantage
8/10
7/10 within NSW
income, education, jobs and housing together
Economic resources
8/10
7/10 within NSW
income against housing cost and household size
Education and occupation
5/10
4/10 within NSW
qualifications and job type, income excluded

Balmoral is home to 730 residents, with a median age of 45, a touch above the national 38. Median household income runs at $100,000 a year, with unemployment at 5.2%.

2021 Census · change since 2016

Population

730

1.0% since 2016

Median Age

45

7.1% since 2016

Median Household Income

$100,412/yr

25.1% since 2016

Census Median Rent

$380/wk

8.6% since 2016

Census Median Mortgage

$1,950/mo

8.3% since 2016

Avg Household Size

2.6

no change since 2016

Median Personal Income

$39,468/yr

13.8% since 2016

Unemployment Rate

5.2%

29.7% since 2016

Unoccupied Dwellings

7.4%

38.3% since 2016

Total Dwellings

272

5.0% since 2016

Owner-Occupier Rate

83.8%

3.6% since 2016

Houses

98.5%

1.1% since 2016

Rental Stress

19.7%

13.2% since 2016

Mortgage Stress

23.3%

13.4% since 2016

Work From Home

21.9%

630.0% since 2016

Dwelling Types

Houses 268 (98.5%)
Townhouses 3 (1.1%)
Flats / Apartments 1 (0.4%)

Property Ownership

Mortgage 125 (46.1%)
Owned Outright 102 (37.6%)
Renting 44 (16.2%)

Demographics

Born in Australia
85.3%
English Spoken at Home
94.2%
Employment Rate
59.5%
1.2% since 2016
Completed Year 12
40.1%

Occupations

Professionals 71 (19.3%)
Technicians & Trades 70 (19.1%)
Clerical & Administrative 49 (13.4%)
Managers 42 (11.4%)
Machinery Operators & Drivers 42 (11.4%)
Community & Personal Service 39 (10.6%)
Labourers 31 (8.4%)
Sales 18 (4.9%)

Religion

Christianity 362 (49.6%)
No Religion 328 (44.9%)

Country of Birth (overseas)

Largest overseas birthplaces, as a share of all residents.

England 26 (3.6%)
Germany 8 (1.1%)
New Zealand 7 (1.0%)
Singapore 6 (0.8%)
Ireland 5 (0.7%)
Scotland 4 (0.5%)

When They Arrived

Share of all residents by the year they arrived in Australia. Periods cover different numbers of years, so compare the shape rather than the bar widths.

2016-2021 8 (1.1%)
2011-2015 0 (0.0%)
2001-2010 19 (2.6%)
1991-2000 4 (0.5%)
1981-1990 10 (1.4%)
Before 1981 31 (4.2%)

8 residents (1.1%) arrived since 2016. Australia’s borders were closed to most arrivals from March 2020, so the last two years of that period are much smaller than the ones before them — nationally 260,799 people arrived in 2019 against 28,521 in 2021.

Age Distribution

0-4 47 (6.4%)
5-14 76 (10.4%)
15-19 52 (7.1%)
20-24 36 (4.9%)
25-34 82 (11.2%)
35-44 73 (10.0%)
45-54 110 (15.1%)
55-64 125 (17.1%)
65-74 91 (12.5%)
75-84 40 (5.5%)
85+ 11 (1.5%)

Family & Household Composition

Couple Families 98 (58.0%)
Lone Person 43 (25.4%)
One Parent Families 28 (16.6%)

Commute to Work

Car (driver) 227 (74.2%)
Worked from Home 67 (21.9%)
Car (passenger) 12 (3.9%)

1% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (3 of 367).

City centre: the ABS area around each capital's CBD, such as Sydney Inner City or Perth City (which takes in Subiaco and Leederville). 2021 Census place of work.

Education

Certificate III & IV 160 (21.9%)
Advanced Diploma / Diploma 70 (9.6%)
Bachelor Degree 62 (8.5%)
Graduate Diploma / Certificate 25 (3.4%)
Postgraduate Degree 21 (2.9%)

Cars per Dwelling

0 cars 5 (1.8%)
1 car 73 (26.9%)
2 cars 108 (39.9%)
3 cars 56 (20.7%)
4+ cars 22 (8.1%)

Council Rates

Lake Macquarie
FY 2024-25

Households face an average residential rates bill of $1,708 a year through Lake Macquarie based on 2024 figures.

Avg residential rate
$1,708/yr
39% above the NSW average of $1,230 · median of 128 councils
Valuation basis
Unimproved Value
land only

How this land is zoned

Share of Balmoral's area by planning zone
2026-09
  • Environmental 54%
  • Residential 44%
  • Parks and recreation 2%

Zoning sets what may be built, not what is there today. A single address can sit in a different zone to the suburb around it — the property page shows the zone for one address.

Building Approvals: Lake Macquarie

The whole council area, not just Balmoral · new residential dwellings
to 2026-08

In the year to August 2026, 1,212 new dwellings were approved across Lake Macquarie. That mix is 846 houses and 366 units. Approvals are up 1.6% on the same period a year earlier.

Trailing 12 months
1,212dwellings
+1.6% YoY
Houses
846
detached dwellings
Units
366
townhouses + apartments

Aboriginal Land Council

Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Biraban Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Local Aboriginal Land Councils are statutory bodies under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983, responsible for land claims and land management for their members. Their boundaries are administrative and are not a statement of whose Country this is. NSW does not publish a register of Aboriginal parties by area — they are registered for each project.

Air Quality

CLEAN

PM2.5 averaged 5 µg/m³ in 2025 — below the WHO 2021 annual guideline (5 µg/m³). 1 day exceeded the daily threshold of 25 µg/m³.

PM10 averaged 11.6 µg/m³ · NO₂ averaged 0.27 pphm. Days over the limit in 2025: PM10 1 · NO₂ 0 · ozone 0.

From the Morisset monitoring station, 7.3 km away.

Climate & Setting

from Newcastle Nobbys Signal Station AWS, 24.9 km

High rainfall — warm summers, mild winters.

Elevation
14 m
above sea level, at the suburb centre
Distance to the ocean
7.3 km
Annual rainfall
1,025 mm
91 rainy days
Summer max (Jan)
25.4°C
4 days ≥ 35°C
Winter min (Jul)
10.2°C
0 frost days ≤ 0°C

Elevation is the ground at the suburb centre, from Geoscience Australia's National Digital Elevation Model. Approximate — it reads high in dense built-up areas. It is a measure of height above sea level and not an indicator of flood risk, which depends on height above nearby waterways.

Industrial Emissions Nearby

3 facilities within 5 km

EV adoption

0.6%
of light vehicles are electric
Up from 0.04% in 2021
+0.2 points this year

In postcode 2283, 116 of 19,275 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 2.5% (475 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 3.1%.

Electric share, year by year
2021
0.04%
2022
0.06%
2023
0.21%
2024
0.39%
2025
0.60%

Rooftop solar

48
systems per 100 dwellings
Averaging 6.4 kW each

In postcode 2283, 4,887 rooftop-solar systems totalling 31.2 MW have been installed since 2001, against 10,109 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 369 went up in the last year.

Counts every system certified since 2001, so a roof re-fitted with a newer system is counted twice, and small commercial systems are included alongside houses — useful for comparing postcodes, not an estimate of how many homes have working panels today.

Systems installed, year by year
2019
312
2020
431
2021
375
2022
368
2023
406
2024
337
2025
369
2026
223

2026 covers part of the year only, to 2026-07.

First Home Owner Grant

FY2026-27

$10,000 for new homes priced up to $600,000.

Off-the-plan or contracted-build value cap is $750,000 (vs $600,000 for completed new homes). Stamp duty concessions are a separate scheme (First Home Buyers Assistance).

Verify eligibility with Revenue NSW

Mortgage repayments

I'm looking for
Deposit
$
%
Monthly repayment
$4,371
Loan amount
$670,400
Total interest over 30 years
$902,982

13 mortgage brokers are registered in postcode 2283.

Deposit
$167,600
Stamp duty
$31,897
Cash needed at settlement
$199,497

Transfer duty at the owner-occupier rate, and it excludes first home buyer concessions — those can cut it substantially or remove it entirely. Excludes legal, inspection and lender fees. Check with Revenue NSW

The First Home Owner Grant applies to newly built homes only, so it isn't available on an established purchase. A first home buyer building or buying new under $600,000 may qualify for $10,000 — see what qualifies with Revenue NSW.

Principal and interest over 30 years, fixed rate. Excludes fees, offset, redraw and LMI. Default rate is the median comparison rate across 1788 advertised products as at 2026-10-27 — indicative only, and not an offer. Your rate depends on the lender, your deposit and your circumstances. Not financial advice.

Federal Electorate

Division of Hunter

Currently held by Dan Repacholi Australian Labor Party

Year Winner 2PP ALP 2PP LNP Swing
2025 Dan Repacholi 59.5% 40.5% +4.7
2022 Dan Repacholi 54.0% 46.0% -1.1
2019 Joel Fitzgibbon 53.0% 47.0% +9.5

Results are per division — federal electoral boundaries are redrawn periodically, so the history reflects this division's past, not necessarily the exact suburb's voters across time.

State Electorate

Lake Macquarie District

Currently held by Greg Piper Independent

Next state election: 13 March 2027.

Year Winner Won with
2023 Greg Piper IND 74.1%
2019 Greg Piper IND 72.1%
2015 Greg Piper IND 60.7%

Results are per district. Districts were last redrawn in 2021, so results from before then describe the district of that name, not necessarily this suburb's voters. Results: © State of New South Wales through the NSW Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0, adapted.

Looking at a specific address in Balmoral?

Every figure above is a suburb average, and an average smooths over the difference between a street of family homes and a block of flats. Look up one address and you get the census for the few hundred people around it, its own nearest schools and stops, and what the state has mapped for that block.

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Nearby suburbs

Compare Balmoral to another suburb

Side-by-side stats for any other NSW suburb — type a name and pick one.

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Common questions about Balmoral

What natural hazards affect Balmoral?

Balmoral has a high recorded bushfire history (95/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). These are suburb-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.

Is Balmoral a good place to live?

Balmoral has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (32/100), ranked against other NSW suburbs on school quality (25%), safety (25%), SEIFA socio-economic advantage (25%), walkability (15%) and CBD access (10%). Whether it suits you depends on what you weigh — each of those is on this page.

What is the population of Balmoral?

Balmoral, NSW had a population of 730 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.

What is the postcode for Balmoral, NSW?

The postcode for Balmoral, NSW is 2283.

How far is Balmoral from Sydney?

Balmoral is 128 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 102 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.

What is the median household income in Balmoral?

At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Balmoral was $100,412 a year. It is the most recent suburb-level income figure until 2026 Census results are released in 2027.

What is the median weekly rent in Balmoral?

There are too few current rental listings in Balmoral for a reliable median. At the 2021 ABS Census the median weekly rent was $380, across all dwelling types.

What is the median age in Balmoral?

The median age of residents in Balmoral was 45 at the 2021 ABS Census.

Is Balmoral at risk of bushfire?

Balmoral has a high recorded bushfire history (95/100). The score comes from Geoscience Australia's historical bushfire boundaries, with planned burns excluded: the area of recorded fires touching the suburb relative to its size, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history. It records where fire has burned, not a bushfire-prone land designation, which your council's planning scheme sets.

Is Balmoral walkable?

Balmoral scores 29/100 on the SuburbScan Walkability Score, making it car-dependent. The score is a weighted average of public transport, schools, parks, supermarkets, GPs, pharmacies, childcare, and hospitals within walking distance.

What is the air quality in Balmoral?

The nearest government air-quality monitoring station to Balmoral (Morisset) recorded a 2025 annual mean PM2.5 of 5.0 µg/m³ and PM10 of 11.6 µg/m³. That puts Balmoral below the WHO annual guideline of 5 µg/m³.

What is the weather like in Balmoral?

At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Balmoral, Newcastle Nobbys Signal Station AWS (24.9 km away), summer days average 25.4°C, winter nights 10.2°C, 1,025 mm of rain a year over 91 rainy days, and 4 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.

Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Balmoral?

First-home buyers in NSW may be eligible for $10,000 towards new homes with a purchase price up to $600,000. The grant is administered by Revenue NSW; confirm current eligibility before signing a contract — state rules and amounts can change.

What council does Balmoral belong to?

Balmoral sits within the Lake Macquarie local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.

How much are council rates in Balmoral?

The average residential rates bill through Lake Macquarie is $1,708 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.

How much is being built near Balmoral?

Across Lake Macquarie, 1,212 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's up 1.6% on the same period a year earlier. These are LGA-level totals — every suburb in the council shares the same figure.

Which federal electorate is Balmoral in?

Balmoral sits within the federal Division of Hunter, currently held by Dan Repacholi (Australian Labor Party).

Search another suburb or address

Data freshness

Vintages show when each source's data is from. See all data sources.

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Information shown is provided as-is from Australian government and commercial data sources.
Always verify with the relevant authority before making property decisions.
See Data Sources and How We Calculate for details.

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