Bowral NSW 2576
Bowral sits 119 km from Sydney CBD in New South Wales, around 1 hour 30 minutes by car. Census data records 10,764 residents with a median age of 55 and a median household income of $79,820 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the top 20% nationally. The suburb grew 4.2% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $500 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $2,167. Bowral is characterised by no recorded bushfire exposure. Of 5 schools within the suburb boundary, 1 ranks above the state average, and walkability is high.
Is Bowral a good suburb?
Bowral scores a B (69/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on transit, safety, and community, weaker on prices.
Mixed results
5 schools · 1 above peer schools
Very walkable
Walkability 92/100 · 118.8 km · 91 min drive to Sydney
Above the state median
Median $1.43M · Less affordable than 82% of NSW
Low all-round risk
Fire 0/100 · Crime 37/100
Very advantaged
SEIFA decile 9/10 · median age 55 · 10,764 residents
Liveability Rating
69 / 100 · Ranked #323 in NSWEach bar is Bowral's rank among NSW suburbs, from 0 to 100 (higher is better).
No flood data is published for New South Wales — a blank here means we hold no data, not that there is no risk.
How do you rate the liveability in Bowral?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
69 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataBowral's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $1.43 million, about 5% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$1,425,000
30% above its 4 neighbours (median $1,095,000)
Based on 232 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 48 days — median across 127 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 11 sales $1.24M
- 3 bed 66 sales $1.14M
- 4 bed 109 sales $1.44M
- 5 bed 36 sales $2.16M
Units
$830,000
Based on 31 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 52 days — median across 14 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 12 sales $789K
- 3 bed 15 sales $855K
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Bowral are currently listed at around $1.43 million on average. Based on 130 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$1.43M
130 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$840K
18 units listed in the last 6 months.
148 of the suburb's 4,523 dwellings (3.3%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Bowral rent for around $915 a week on average, based on 52 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
Houses
$915/wk
17% above its 3 neighbours (median $780/wk)
52 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
Units
$650/wk
9 units advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
61 rentals advertised against an estimated 900 rented homes (6.8%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $820/wk
- 27 bonds
- +31% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2576 (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 202575 Severely unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 40% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2576.
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.
Gross rental yield
Indicative$915/week ($48,000 a year) on a $1.43 million median
$650/week ($34,000 a year) on a $840,000 median
Gross yield — before strata, rates, management, insurance and vacancy. Calculated from median advertised rents and median asking prices over the last 6 months. How we calculate.
Is Bowral safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Bowral sits in the low band, with 283 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 23% on the prior year.
283 offences
23.1% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202519 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 2 of them fatal
Where they happened
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
Wingecarribee Shire Council has published 9 flood studies on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.
- Wingecarribee River Flood Study Update 2022
- Review of Whites Creek Floodplain Risk Management Study & Plan 2020
- Nattai Ponds Floodplain Risk Management Study & Draft Plan 2019
- Gibbergunyah Creek Floodplain Risk Management Study and Draft Plan 2016
- Nattai River Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan 2016
Schools
Five schools serve Bowral, and results are mixed — some outperforming peer-suburb schools, some below. Aurora Southern Highlands Steiner School leads the pack.
- • 1,761 students across 5 schools (avg 352)
- • Sectors: 2 Independent, 2 Government, 1 Catholic
- • ICSEA 956-1103, median 1068 (above the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: Bowral High School (564 students)
Primary
Secondary
Combined
Walkability
Bowral is exceptionally walkable on foot — at 92/100, daily errands don't require a car at all. Within the suburb there are 5 supermarkets, 19 parks and 35 cafes to anchor that walking radius.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Bowral.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 127.2 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 81.3 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 13.2 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 0 min
- Span of service
- 23.0 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 Bowral.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 39%
- Premises covered
- 6,483
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
Wingecarribee: council population
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
The ABS scores 27 small areas inside this suburb and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 7 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this suburb rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Bowral is home to about 10,800 residents, with a median age of 55 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $80,000 a year, with unemployment at 2.8%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
10,764
Median Age
55
Median Household Income
$79,820/yr
Census Median Rent
$500/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$2,167/mo
Avg Household Size
2.2
Median Personal Income
$41,704/yr
Unemployment Rate
2.8%
Unoccupied Dwellings
10.7%
Total Dwellings
4,523
Owner-Occupier Rate
80.1%
Houses
80.6%
Rental Stress
32.6%
Mortgage Stress
32.6%
Work From Home
34.0%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
43 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 62 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 853 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 73.9%
- English Spoken at Home
- 87.9%
- Employment Rate
- 47.2%
- Completed Year 12
- 51.6%
Occupations
Religion
Country of Birth (overseas)
Largest overseas birthplaces, as a share of all residents.
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.
222 residents (2.1%) 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.
Where New Residents Came From
Where residents aged five and over lived five years before the 2021 Census, for those who lived somewhere else.
17.1% of residents (1,775) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (1,656).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 10,395 residents aged five and over. Areas are ABS statistical regions. Small counts are approximate: the ABS adjusts every figure slightly to protect privacy.
Languages Spoken at Home
Top languages other than English, as a share of all residents.
Age Distribution
Family & Household Composition
Commute to Work
5% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (228 of 4,360).
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.
Local Jobs
People who work in this suburb against employed people who live here, 2021 Census.
About 6,154 people work here; 4,360 employed residents live here.
Roughly as many jobs as working residents (1.4 per resident). At least 29% of the people who work here must live elsewhere.
Counts are by place of work and place of usual residence. The ABS counts jobs in zones; where a zone spans several places, its jobs are shared out by land use. The ABS also adjusts every figure slightly to protect privacy.
Education
Cars per Dwelling
Council Rates
Households face an average residential rates bill of $2,072 a year through Wingecarribee based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Environmental 56%
- Residential 27%
- Parks and recreation 8%
- Rural and farming 6%
- Infrastructure and transport 1%
- Zones under 1% 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: Wingecarribee
In the year to August 2026, 335 new dwellings were approved across Wingecarribee. That mix is 244 houses and 91 units. Approvals are up 5.6% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Illawarra 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.
Climate & Setting
from Mittagong (Alfred Street), 5.0 kmHigh rainfall.
- Elevation
- 679 m
- above sea level, at the suburb centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 41.0 km
- Annual rainfall
- 974 mm
- 97 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- —
- Winter min (Jul)
- —
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
4 facilities within 5 km- 1.4 kmClay Brick ManufacturingTop reported: Carbon monoxide · Sulfur dioxide · Oxides of Nitrogen
- 2.6 kmSewerage and Drainage ServicesTop reported: Total Nitrogen · Ammonia (total) · Total Phosphorus
- 3.4 kmPetroleum Product WholesalingTop reported: Total Volatile Organic Compounds · Toluene (methylbenzene) · Xylenes (individual or mixed isomers)
- 4.1 km
EV adoption
In postcode 2576, 204 of 11,804 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 3.8% (449 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 5.5%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2576, 2,605 rooftop-solar systems totalling 20.1 MW have been installed since 2001, against 6,413 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 187 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.
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).
Mortgage repayments
16 mortgage brokers are registered in this suburb, 19 across postcode 2576.
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.
At $1,425,000 this is $825,000 above the $600,000 First Home Owner Grant cap. A first home buyer may qualify for $10,000 on a newly built home — check eligibility with Revenue NSW.
A deposit under 20% usually attracts Lenders Mortgage Insurance, which this doesn't include.
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
Currently held by Carol Berry Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Carol Berry | 56.2% | 43.8% | -2.1 |
| 2022 | Stephen Jones | 60.1% | 39.9% | +0.8 |
| 2019 | Stephen Jones | 60.9% | 39.1% | +39.1 |
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
Currently held by Judy Hannan Independent
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Judy Hannan IND | 51.5% |
| 2019 | Nathaniel Smith LP | 55.5% |
| 2015 | Jai Rowell LP | 67.3% |
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 Bowral?
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.
- The census for a few hundred neighbours, not all 10,764 residents
- Nearest and zoned schools, with the walk from that door
- Flood, bushfire and noise mapping, where the state publishes it
Free to look up. Subscribers see every section in full — $29/month.
Nearby suburbs
Compare Bowral to another suburb
Side-by-side stats for any other NSW suburb — type a name and pick one.
Or jump straight to a nearby comparison:
Common questions about Bowral
Is Bowral a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Bowral is low (37/100, ranked against other NSW suburbs on offences per resident).
What natural hazards affect Bowral?
Bowral has no recorded bushfire history. These are suburb-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Bowral a good place to live?
Bowral has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of B (69/100), 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 Bowral?
Bowral, NSW had a population of 10,764 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Bowral, NSW?
The postcode for Bowral, NSW is 2576.
How far is Bowral from Sydney?
Bowral is 119 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 91 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Bowral?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Bowral was $79,820 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 Bowral?
The median advertised rent in Bowral is $915 a week for houses (52 listings) and $650 a week for units (9 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Bowral?
The median age of residents in Bowral was 55 at the 2021 ABS Census.
How are the schools in Bowral?
There are 5 schools inside the Bowral boundary: 1 above, 3 at, and 1 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Bowral walkable?
Bowral scores 92/100 on the SuburbScan Walkability Score, making it exceptionally walkable. The score is a weighted average of public transport, schools, parks, supermarkets, GPs, pharmacies, childcare, and hospitals within walking distance.
What is the weather like in Bowral?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Bowral, Mittagong (Alfred Street) (5 km away), 974 mm of rain a year over 97 rainy days over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Bowral?
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 Bowral belong to?
Bowral sits within the Wingecarribee local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Bowral?
The average residential rates bill through Wingecarribee is $2,072 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Bowral?
Across Wingecarribee, 335 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's up 5.6% 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 Bowral in?
Bowral sits within the federal Division of Whitlam, currently held by Carol Berry (Australian Labor Party).
Search another suburb or address
Data freshness
- Census · 2021
- Median sale prices · Oct 2026
- For-sale & rental market · Oct 2026
- Council rates · FY 2024–25
- Building approvals · Aug 2026
- Schools · 2025
- Public transport · Oct 2026
- NBN connectivity · Dec 2025
- Crime · 2025
- Road crashes · 2021–2025
- Climate · 2006–2026
- Socio-economic (SEIFA) · 2021
- EV adoption · Jan 2025
- First Home Owner Grant · Sep 2026
- Federal electorate · 2025
- State electorate · 2023
- Amenities · Sep 2026
- Health & emergency facilities · Sep 2026
- Industrial emissions (NPI) · 2024/2025
- Coastal erosion · 1988–2025
- Aircraft noise · 2024
Vintages show when each source's data is from. See all data sources.
Was the information on this page useful to you?
Thanks! Anything we could improve?
We hate spam as much as you do — we'll never use your email for marketing, and we might not be able to reply to everyone.
Thanks for your feedback! 🙏
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.