Braidwood is a town in New South Wales, 278 km from Sydney CBD, around 3 hours 15 minutes by car. Population is 1,720; the median age is 50 and the median household income is $73,424 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the middle range nationally. The town grew 4.2% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $345 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,700. Braidwood is characterised by high bushfire risk and high crime risk. 2 schools sit within the town boundary, and walkability is moderate.
Is Braidwood a good town?
Braidwood scores a C (33/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — weaker on safety.
Mixed results
2 schools
Some car dependence
Walkability 49/100 · 278.5 km · 194 min drive to Sydney
Around the state median
Median $750K
High bushfire risk
Fire 74/100 · Crime 61/100
Mid-range socio-economic
SEIFA decile 6/10 · median age 50 · 1,720 residents
Liveability Rating
33 / 100 · Ranked #1205 in NSWEach bar is Braidwood'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.
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 Braidwood?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
33 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataBraidwood's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $750,000, about 5% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$750,000
Based on 88 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 120 days — median across 37 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 12 sales $662K
- 3 bed 49 sales $735K
- 4 bed 18 sales $832K
Land
$445,000
Based on 10 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 148 days — median across 4 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Braidwood are currently listed at around $887,000 on average. Based on 42 houses listed in the past six months.
$887K
42 houses listed in the last 6 months.
43 of the suburb's 697 dwellings (6.2%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Braidwood rent for around $520 a week on average, based on 3 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$520/wk
3 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
3 rentals advertised against an estimated 167 rented homes (1.8%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- All rentals
- $518/wk
- 12 bonds
- +14% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2622 (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.
Gross rental yield
Indicative$520/week ($27,000 a year) on a $887,000 median
Based on a small sample (3 listings) — indicative only.
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 Braidwood safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Braidwood sits in the moderate band, with 77 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 48% on the prior year.
77 offences
48.0% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–20251 crash
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 1 of them fatal
Crashes are counted where they happened, so a main road through the town 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
Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional 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.
Schools
Two schools serve Braidwood, and the cohort is trailing peer-suburb performance.
- • 437 students across 2 schools (avg 218)
- • Sectors: 1 Government, 1 Catholic
- • ICSEA 1005-1013, median 1009 (around the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: Braidwood Central School (306 students)
Primary
Combined
Walkability
Braidwood is car-dependent on foot — at 49/100, most errands require a car. Within the town there are 1 supermarket, 6 parks and 11 cafes to anchor that walking radius.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Braidwood.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 9.8 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 4.1 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.1 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 0 min
- Span of service
- 11.0 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 Braidwood.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 45%
- Premises covered
- 1,100
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
Queanbeyan-Palerang: council population
The three add up to the change above. These are council-wide figures from the ABS, not figures for this town alone — this town's own population is in the census section above.
Socio-economic profile
The ABS scores 4 small areas inside this town and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 3 different deciles — a narrow range, so the average describes the town closely.
Braidwood is home to about 1,700 residents, with a median age of 50 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $73,000 a year, with unemployment at 3.5%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
1,720
Median Age
50
Median Household Income
$73,424/yr
Census Median Rent
$345/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,700/mo
Avg Household Size
2.2
Median Personal Income
$40,352/yr
Unemployment Rate
3.5%
Unoccupied Dwellings
20.1%
Total Dwellings
697
Owner-Occupier Rate
76.1%
Houses
87.5%
Rental Stress
24.4%
Mortgage Stress
27.8%
Work From Home
20.1%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 78.0%
- English Spoken at Home
- 85.9%
- Employment Rate
- 52.8%
- Completed Year 12
- 43.7%
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.
20 residents (1.2%) 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.
9.0% of residents (148) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Canberra (84).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 1,637 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
6% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (42 of 760).
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 town against employed people who live here, 2021 Census.
About 802 people work here; 760 employed residents live here.
Roughly as many jobs as working residents (1.1 per resident). At least 5% 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 $1,751 a year through Queanbeyan-Palerang based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 97%
- Environmental 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 town around it — the property page shows the zone for one address.
Building Approvals: Queanbeyan-Palerang
In the year to August 2026, 510 new dwellings were approved across Queanbeyan-Palerang. That mix is 274 houses and 236 units. Approvals are up 230.9% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Batemans Bay 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 Braidwood (Monkittee Street), 1.5 kmModerate rainfall.
- Elevation
- 666 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 44.9 km
- Annual rainfall
- 724 mm
- 75 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- —
- Winter min (Jul)
- —
Elevation is the ground at the town 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.
EV adoption
In postcode 2622, 34 of 4,430 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 1.4% (64 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 2.2%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2622, 1,364 rooftop-solar systems totalling 9.1 MW have been installed since 2001, against 2,412 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 118 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
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 $750,000 this is $150,000 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 Kristy Mcbain Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Kristy Mcbain | 57.2% | 42.8% | +1.1 |
| 2022 | Kristy Mcbain | 58.2% | 41.8% | -7.3 |
| 2019 | Mike Kelly | 50.9% | 49.1% | +2.1 |
Results are per division — federal electoral boundaries are redrawn periodically, so the history reflects this division's past, not necessarily the exact town's voters across time.
State Electorate
Currently held by Steven Whan Labor
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Steven Whan ALP | 52.3% |
| 2019 | John Barilaro NP | 61.6% |
| 2015 | John Barilaro NP | 52.5% |
Results are per district. Districts were last redrawn in 2021, so results from before then describe the district of that name, not necessarily this town's voters. Results: © State of New South Wales through the NSW Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0, adapted.
Looking at a specific address in Braidwood?
Every figure above is a town 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 1,720 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
Bombay NSW 2622
Mongarlowe NSW 2622
Reidsdale NSW 2622
Durran Durra NSW 2622
Bendoura NSW 2622
Jembaicumbene NSW 2622
Compare Braidwood 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 Braidwood
Is Braidwood a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Braidwood is moderate (61/100, ranked against other NSW suburbs on offences per resident).
What natural hazards affect Braidwood?
Braidwood has a high recorded bushfire history (74/100, ranked against every Australian suburb with any fire history). These are town-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Braidwood a good place to live?
Braidwood has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (33/100), 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 Braidwood?
Braidwood, NSW had a population of 1,720 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Braidwood, NSW?
The postcode for Braidwood, NSW is 2622.
How far is Braidwood from Sydney?
Braidwood is 278 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 194 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Braidwood?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Braidwood was $73,424 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 Braidwood?
The median advertised rent in Braidwood is $520 a week for houses (3 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Braidwood?
The median age of residents in Braidwood was 50 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Braidwood at risk of bushfire?
Braidwood has a high recorded bushfire history (74/100). The score comes from Geoscience Australia's historical bushfire boundaries, with planned burns excluded: the area of recorded fires touching the town 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.
How are the schools in Braidwood?
There are 2 schools inside the Braidwood boundary: 1 at and 1 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Braidwood walkable?
Braidwood scores 49/100 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 weather like in Braidwood?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Braidwood, Braidwood (Monkittee Street) (1.5 km away), 724 mm of rain a year over 75 rainy days over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Braidwood?
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 Braidwood belong to?
Braidwood sits within the Queanbeyan-Palerang local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Braidwood?
The average residential rates bill through Queanbeyan-Palerang is $1,751 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Braidwood?
Across Queanbeyan-Palerang, 510 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's up 230.9% 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 Braidwood in?
Braidwood sits within the federal Division of Eden-monaro, currently held by Kristy Mcbain (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.
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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.