Fingal Head is a suburb in New South Wales, 807 km from Sydney CBD, around 8 hours 35 minutes by car. Population is 615; the median age is 46 and the median household income is $83,928 per year. On socioeconomic measures it sits in the top 40% nationally. Population grew 3.9% from 2016 to 2021. The 2021 Census recorded a median rent of $400 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $2,350. The area shows high coastal erosion risk and high crime risk. All 1 school within the suburb boundary rank above the state average, and walkability is low.
Is Fingal Head a good suburb?
Fingal Head scores a C (39/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on community, weaker on prices.
Mixed results
1 school · 1 above peer schools
Some car dependence
Walkability 32/100 · 806.9 km · 515 min drive to Sydney
Above the state median
Median $2.05M · Less affordable than 83% of NSW
Moderate bushfire risk
Fire 41/100 · Crime 64/100
Advantaged
SEIFA decile 8/10 · median age 46 · 615 residents
Liveability Rating
39 / 100 · Ranked #1037 in NSWEach bar is Fingal Head'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 Fingal Head?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
39 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataFingal Head's house market is moving lower: the median sale price reached $2.05 million, about 7% below where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$2,052,500
70% above its 5 neighbours (median $1,210,000)
Based on 16 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 130 days — median across 4 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 3 bed 6 sales $1.59M
- 4 bed 6 sales $2.3M
Units
$1,000,000
Based on only 3 sales — small sample, take as indicative.
Rental Market
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $1,148/wk
- 20 bonds
- +39% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $820/wk
- 26 bonds
- +45% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2487 (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 202569 Severely unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 43% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2487.
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.
Short-Stay Rentals
12 active Airbnb listings: 12 whole homes and 0 rooms. Whole homes are about 4.5% of the suburb's homes.
Airbnb only, as at Jun 2026; other platforms are not included. Active means reviewed in the past 12 months. The share is against private dwellings at the 2021 Census.
Is Fingal Head safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Fingal Head sits in the moderate band, with 27 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 13% on the prior year.
27 offences
12.9% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–2025No crash in Fingal Head 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
Tweed Shire Council has published 8 flood studies on the NSW Flood Data Portal. The mapped flood areas are in those studies; SuburbScan does not hold them.
Coastal Erosion
Shoreline Change Summary
1989–2025Nearest Eroding Coastline
- Distance
- 449 m
- Rate
- -0.06 m/yr
- Net Movement
- -26.0 m
- Certainty
- good
Data Quality
Schools
One school serve Fingal Head, and the cohort skews above peer-suburb performance. Fingal Head Public School leads the pack.
- • 33 students in one school (avg 33)
Primary
Universities nearby
2.3% of residents here are full-time university students aged 15–24.
Distance is measured to the suburb centre. A campus nearby does not by itself mean a student rental market — most suburbs within a few kilometres of one have a student share close to the national norm, and the figure above is what tells them apart.
Walkability
Fingal Head is car-dependent on foot — at 32/100, most errands require a car.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Fingal Head.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 3.5 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 0.7 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.0 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 3 min
- Span of service
- 9.2 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 Fingal Head.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 53%
- Premises covered
- 314
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
Tweed: 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
Fingal Head is home to 615 residents, with a median age of 46, a touch above the national 38. Median household income runs at $84,000 a year, with unemployment at 5.8%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
615
Median Age
46
Median Household Income
$83,928/yr
Census Median Rent
$400/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$2,350/mo
Avg Household Size
2.6
Median Personal Income
$41,288/yr
Unemployment Rate
5.8%
Unoccupied Dwellings
18.3%
Total Dwellings
229
Owner-Occupier Rate
67.7%
Houses
77.3%
Rental Stress
24.8%
Mortgage Stress
33.6%
Work From Home
23.6%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 77.9%
- English Spoken at Home
- 84.4%
- Employment Rate
- 56.3%
- Completed Year 12
- 49.1%
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.
6 residents (1.0%) 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.
10.3% of residents (61) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Brisbane (32).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 595 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
4% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (11 of 290).
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 $1,745 a year through Tweed based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Other and special use 82%
- Residential 9%
- Parks and recreation 6%
- Environmental 2%
- Zones under 1% 1%
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: Tweed
In the year to August 2026, 331 new dwellings were approved across Tweed. That mix is 187 houses and 144 units. Approvals are down 49.7% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Tweed Byron 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 Coolangatta, 7.0 kmHigh rainfall — mild summers, mild winters.
- Elevation
- 0 m
- above sea level, at the suburb centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 410 m
- 2.2 km to a named beach
- Annual rainfall
- 1,637 mm
- 113 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 28.6°C
- 0 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 10.5°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.
EV adoption
In postcode 2487, 161 of 10,050 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 3.7% (370 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 5.3%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2487, 4,375 rooftop-solar systems totalling 30.2 MW have been installed since 2001, against 6,665 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 258 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, 8 across postcode 2487.
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 $2,052,500 this is $1,452,500 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 Justine Elliot Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Justine Elliot | 60.0% | 40.0% | +1.8 |
| 2022 | Justine Elliot | 58.2% | 41.8% | -4.2 |
| 2019 | Justine Elliot | 54.1% | 45.9% | -0.1 |
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 Geoff Provest The Nationals
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Geoff Provest NP | 53.6% |
| 2019 | Geoff Provest NP | 55.0% |
| 2015 | Geoff Provest NP | 53.2% |
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 Fingal Head?
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 615 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 Fingal Head 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 Fingal Head
Is Fingal Head a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Fingal Head is moderate (64/100, ranked against other NSW suburbs on offences per resident).
What natural hazards affect Fingal Head?
Fingal Head has a moderate recorded bushfire history (41/100, 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 Fingal Head a good place to live?
Fingal Head has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of C (39/100), 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 Fingal Head?
Fingal Head, NSW had a population of 615 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Fingal Head, NSW?
The postcode for Fingal Head, NSW is 2487.
How far is Fingal Head from Sydney?
Fingal Head is 807 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 515 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Fingal Head?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Fingal Head was $83,928 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 Fingal Head?
There are too few current rental listings in Fingal Head for a reliable median. At the 2021 ABS Census the median weekly rent was $400, across all dwelling types.
What is the median age in Fingal Head?
The median age of residents in Fingal Head was 46 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Fingal Head at risk of bushfire?
Fingal Head has a moderate recorded bushfire history (41/100). 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.
How are the schools in Fingal Head?
There is 1 school inside the Fingal Head boundary: 1 above similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Fingal Head walkable?
Fingal Head scores 32/100 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 Fingal Head?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Fingal Head, Coolangatta (7 km away), summer days average 28.6°C, winter nights 10.5°C, 1,637 mm of rain a year over 113 rainy days, and 0 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Fingal Head?
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 Fingal Head belong to?
Fingal Head sits within the Tweed local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Fingal Head?
The average residential rates bill through Tweed is $1,745 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Fingal Head?
Across Tweed, 331 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 49.7% 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 Fingal Head in?
Fingal Head sits within the federal Division of Richmond, currently held by Justine Elliot (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
- Climate · 2006–2026
- Socio-economic (SEIFA) · 2021
- EV adoption · Jan 2025
- First Home Owner Grant · Sep 2026
- Federal electorate · 2025
- Short-stay rentals · Jun 2026
- 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.
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