Calderwood NSW 2527
Located in New South Wales, Calderwood sits 107 km from Sydney CBD, around 1 hour 35 minutes by car. The suburb has 3,013 residents, a median age of 30, and a median household income of $126,412 per year. On socioeconomic measures it sits in the top 20% nationally. The 2021 Census recorded a median rent of $580 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $2,470. The area shows no recorded bushfire exposure. 1 school sits within the suburb boundary, and walkability is low.
Is Calderwood a good suburb?
Calderwood scores a B (61/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on prices and community, weaker on transit.
Mixed results
1 school
Car-dependent
Walkability 10/100 · 106.8 km · 97 min drive to Sydney
More affordable than most
Median $1.08M · More affordable than 86% of NSW
Moderate crime risk
Fire 0/100 · Crime 44/100
Very advantaged
SEIFA decile 9/10 · median age 30 · 3,013 residents
Liveability Rating
61 / 100 · Ranked #481 in NSWEach bar is Calderwood'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 Calderwood?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
61 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataCalderwood's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $1.08 million, roughly 10% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$1,080,000
20% above its 3 neighbours (median $900,000)
Based on 156 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 29 days — median across 99 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 3 bed 19 sales $925K
- 4 bed 124 sales $1.1M
- 5 bed 12 sales $1.35M
Land
$541,000
Based on 18 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 63 days — median across 12 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Calderwood are currently listed at around $1.2 million on average. Based on 79 houses listed in the past six months.
$1.2M
79 houses listed in the last 6 months.
79 of the suburb's 975 dwellings (8.1%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Calderwood rent for around $870 a week on average, based on 53 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$870/wk
16% above its 3 neighbours (median $750/wk)
53 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
55 rentals advertised against an estimated 195 rented homes (28.2%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $750/wk
- 51 bonds
- +38% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2527 (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 202581 Unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 37% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2527.
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$870/week ($45,000 a year) on a $1.2 million 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 Calderwood safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Calderwood sits in the moderate band, with 84 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 24% on the prior year.
84 offences
24.3% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–20256 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital
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
Shellharbour City 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.
- Horsley Creek Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan 2025
- Elliott Lake Little Lake FRMSP Update 2025
- Macquarie Rivulet Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan 2024 2024
- Lake Illawarra, Mt Warrigal and Oak Flats Flood Study 2019
- Elliot Lake and Little Lake Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan 2016
Schools
One school serve Calderwood, and performance is broadly on par with peer-suburb schools.
- • 504 students in one school (avg 504)
Combined
Walkability
Calderwood is very car-dependent on foot — at 10/100, nearly all errands require a car.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Calderwood.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 21.0 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 14.1 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 5.6 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 17.0 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 Calderwood.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 42%
- Premises covered
- 65
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
Shellharbour: 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 6 small areas inside this suburb and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 2 different deciles — a narrow range, so the average describes the suburb closely.
Calderwood is home to about 3,000 residents, and skews young, with a median age of 30 against the national 38. Median household income runs at $126,000 a year, with unemployment at 2.2%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
3,013
Median Age
30
Median Household Income
$126,412/yr
Census Median Rent
$580/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$2,470/mo
Avg Household Size
3.1
Median Personal Income
$58,552/yr
Unemployment Rate
2.2%
Unoccupied Dwellings
3.4%
Total Dwellings
975
Owner-Occupier Rate
80.0%
Houses
97.6%
Rental Stress
23.9%
Mortgage Stress
23.4%
Work From Home
27.5%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 84.9%
- English Spoken at Home
- 87.9%
- Employment Rate
- 77.3%
- Completed Year 12
- 39.1%
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.
44 residents (1.5%) 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.
9.6% of residents (253) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (240).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 2,626 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
2% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (36 of 1,650).
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
Cars per Dwelling
Council Rates
Households face an average residential rates bill of $1,788 a year through Shellharbour based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Environmental 46%
- Rural and farming 30%
- Residential 17%
- Commercial 4%
- Parks and recreation 4%
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: Shellharbour
In the year to August 2026, 883 new dwellings were approved across Shellharbour. That mix is 479 houses and 404 units. Approvals are up 25.2% 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.
Air Quality
MODERATEPM2.5 averaged 5.1 µg/m³ in 2025 — below Australia's NEPM annual standard (8 µg/m³), slightly above the stricter WHO guideline (5 µg/m³).
PM10 averaged 14.3 µg/m³ · NO₂ averaged 0.37 pphm. Days over the limit in 2025: PM10 1 · NO₂ 0 · ozone 0.
From the Albion Park South monitoring station, 5.3 km away.
Climate & Setting
from Mittagong (Alfred Street), 27.9 kmHigh rainfall.
- Elevation
- 52 m
- above sea level, at the suburb centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 12.7 km
- Near high-voltage lines
- 0.2% of addresses
- 7 within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more
- 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.
EV adoption
In postcode 2527, 162 of 22,269 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 2.7% (595 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 3.4%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2527, 5,633 rooftop-solar systems totalling 39.0 MW have been installed since 2001, against 9,370 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 488 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
1 mortgage broker is registered in this suburb, 5 across postcode 2527.
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 $1,080,000 this is $480,000 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 Katelin McInerney Labor — elected at the Sep 2025 by-election, after the results below
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Gareth Ward IND | 50.8% |
| 2019 | Gareth Ward LP | 62.0% |
| 2015 | Gareth Ward LP | 58.7% |
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 Calderwood?
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 3,013 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.
Featured in
- #1 in Wollongong suburbs where the most Malayalam is spoken at home
- #1 in Wollongong suburbs where young families live
- #5 in Wollongong's highest-income suburbs
- #5 in Where the Indian community lives in Wollongong
- #8 in Wollongong's most owner-occupied suburbs
- #11 in Wollongong suburbs with the largest Hindu community
- #11 in Wollongong suburbs where the most residents moved from a capital city
- #14 in Wollongong suburbs with the largest non-religious population
- #15 in The most liveable suburbs in Wollongong
- #15 in The safest suburbs in Wollongong
Nearby suburbs
Albion Park NSW 2527
Albion Park Rail NSW 2527
Tullimbar NSW 2527
Marshall Mount NSW 2530
Tongarra NSW 2527
Yallah NSW 2530
Compare Calderwood 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 Calderwood
Is Calderwood a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Calderwood is moderate (44/100, ranked against other NSW suburbs on offences per resident).
What natural hazards affect Calderwood?
Calderwood has no recorded bushfire history. These are suburb-wide figures; check the address, as flood and bushfire exposure change street by street.
Is Calderwood a good place to live?
Calderwood has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of B (61/100), 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 Calderwood?
Calderwood, NSW had a population of 3,013 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Calderwood, NSW?
The postcode for Calderwood, NSW is 2527.
How far is Calderwood from Sydney?
Calderwood is 107 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 97 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Calderwood?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Calderwood was $126,412 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 Calderwood?
The median advertised rent in Calderwood is $870 a week for houses (53 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Calderwood?
The median age of residents in Calderwood was 30 at the 2021 ABS Census.
How are the schools in Calderwood?
There is 1 school inside the Calderwood boundary: 1 at similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Calderwood walkable?
Calderwood scores 10/100 on the SuburbScan Walkability Score, making it very 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 Calderwood?
The nearest government air-quality monitoring station to Calderwood (Albion Park South) recorded a 2025 annual mean PM2.5 of 5.1 µg/m³ and PM10 of 14.3 µg/m³. That puts Calderwood below the Australian NEPM annual standard of 8 µg/m³ but above the stricter WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³.
What is the weather like in Calderwood?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Calderwood, Mittagong (Alfred Street) (27.9 km away), 974 mm of rain a year over 97 rainy days over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Calderwood?
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 Calderwood belong to?
Calderwood sits within the Shellharbour local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Calderwood?
The average residential rates bill through Shellharbour is $1,788 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Calderwood?
Across Shellharbour, 883 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's up 25.2% 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 Calderwood in?
Calderwood sits within the federal Division of Whitlam, currently held by Carol Berry (Australian Labor Party).
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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
- Air quality · 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.