Shoal Bay NSW 2315
Located in New South Wales, Shoal Bay sits 212 km from Sydney CBD, around 2 hours 45 minutes by car. The suburb has 1,815 residents, a median age of 59, and a median household income of $52,364 per year. On socioeconomic measures it sits in the lower-middle tier nationally. Population fell 2.6% from 2016 to 2021. The 2021 Census recorded a median rent of $338 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,700. The area shows high crime risk and high bushfire risk. 1 school sits within the suburb boundary, and walkability is moderate.
Is Shoal Bay a good suburb?
Shoal Bay scores a D (24/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — weaker on prices and safety.
Mixed results
1 school
Some car dependence
Walkability 56/100 · 212.1 km · 167 min drive to Sydney
Above the state median
Median $1.19M · Less affordable than 90% of NSW
High bushfire risk
Fire 82/100 · Crime 84/100
Below-average income
SEIFA decile 3/10 · median age 59 · 1,815 residents
Liveability Rating
24 / 100 · Ranked #1401 in NSWEach bar is Shoal Bay'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 Shoal Bay?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
24 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataShoal Bay's house market is moving higher: the median sale price reached $1.19 million, about 8% above where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$1,190,000
Based on 59 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 38 days — median across 42 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 6 sales $860K
- 3 bed 27 sales $1.05M
- 4 bed 18 sales $1.36M
Units
$735,000
Based on 46 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 41 days — median across 14 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 1 bed 12 sales $450K
- 2 bed 29 sales $785K
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Shoal Bay are currently listed at around $1.03 million on average. Based on 5 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$1.03M
5 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$769K
5 units listed in the last 6 months — typical time on market 6 days.
10 of the suburb's 821 dwellings (1.2%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Shoal Bay rent for around $710 a week on average, based on 12 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
Houses
$710/wk
12 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
Units
$620/wk
4 units advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
16 rentals advertised against an estimated 306 rented homes (5.2%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $720/wk
- 43 bonds
- +43% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $580/wk
- 35 bonds
- +41% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2315 (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 202591 Unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 33% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2315.
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$710/week ($37,000 a year) on a $1.03 million median
Based on a small sample (5 listings) — indicative only.
$620/week ($32,000 a year) on a $769,000 median
Based on a small sample (4 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 Shoal Bay safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Shoal Bay sits in the high band, with 135 incidents recorded in 2025 — up about 6% on the prior year.
135 offences
5.5% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–20251 crash
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
Port Stephens Council has published 7 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
1988–2025Nearest Eroding Coastline
- Distance
- 640 m
- Rate
- -0.03 m/yr
- Net Movement
- 0.4 m
- Certainty
- good
Data Quality
Schools
One school serve Shoal Bay, and performance is broadly on par with peer-suburb schools.
- • 237 students in one school (avg 237)
Primary
Walkability
Shoal Bay is somewhat walkable on foot — at 56/100, a short cluster of errands work on foot but most trips still benefit from a car.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Shoal Bay.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 24.5 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 15.0 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 10.6 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 17.8 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 Shoal Bay.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 31%
- Premises covered
- 1,694
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
Port Stephens: 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 5 small areas inside this suburb and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 3 different deciles — a narrow range, so the average describes the suburb closely.
Shoal Bay is home to about 1,800 residents, with a median age of 59 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $52,000 a year, with unemployment at 5.8%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
1,815
Median Age
59
Median Household Income
$52,364/yr
Census Median Rent
$338/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,700/mo
Avg Household Size
2.0
Median Personal Income
$32,396/yr
Unemployment Rate
5.8%
Unoccupied Dwellings
83.6%
Total Dwellings
821
Owner-Occupier Rate
62.7%
Houses
52.5%
Rental Stress
33.6%
Mortgage Stress
39.0%
Work From Home
22.7%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
0 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 27 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 269 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 76.1%
- English Spoken at Home
- 83.3%
- Employment Rate
- 37.2%
- Completed Year 12
- 32.9%
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.
50 residents (2.8%) 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.
9.2% of residents (162) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (147).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 1,765 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 (13 of 594).
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 707 people work here; 594 employed residents live here.
Roughly as many jobs as working residents (1.2 per resident). At least 14% 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 $1,359 a year through Port Stephens based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Environmental 71%
- Residential 20%
- Parks and recreation 7%
- 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: Port Stephens
In the year to August 2026, 495 new dwellings were approved across Port Stephens. That mix is 294 houses and 201 units. Approvals are down 72.1% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Worimi 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 Williamtown RAAF, 32.6 kmHigh rainfall — hot summers, mild winters.
- Elevation
- 13 m
- above sea level, at the suburb centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 636 m
- 736 m to a named beach
- Annual rainfall
- 1,181 mm
- 95 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 28.7°C
- 13 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 7.5°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.
Industrial Emissions Nearby
1 facility within 5 km- 3.9 kmSewerage and Drainage ServicesTop reported: Total Nitrogen · Ammonia (total) · Total Phosphorus
EV adoption
In postcode 2315, 108 of 12,075 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 3.6% (438 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 4.5%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2315, 3,025 rooftop-solar systems totalling 18.5 MW have been installed since 2001, against 9,280 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 178 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, 4 across postcode 2315.
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 $1,190,000 this is $590,000 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 Meryl Swanson Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Meryl Swanson | 56.9% | 43.1% | +4.3 |
| 2022 | Meryl Swanson | 53.3% | 46.7% | +1.7 |
| 2019 | Meryl Swanson | 55.0% | 45.0% | +5.7 |
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 Kate Washington Labor
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Kate Washington ALP | 69.0% |
| 2019 | Kate Washington ALP | 55.8% |
| 2015 | Kate Washington ALP | 54.7% |
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 Shoal Bay?
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 1,815 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 Shoal Bay 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 Shoal Bay
Is Shoal Bay a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Shoal Bay is high (84/100, ranked against other NSW suburbs on offences per resident). Offences against shops, venues and visitors are divided by the people who live here, so suburbs with large daytime or visitor populations rank higher than living there may feel.
What natural hazards affect Shoal Bay?
Shoal Bay has a high recorded bushfire history (82/100, 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 Shoal Bay a good place to live?
Shoal Bay has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (24/100), 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 Shoal Bay?
Shoal Bay, NSW had a population of 1,815 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Shoal Bay, NSW?
The postcode for Shoal Bay, NSW is 2315.
How far is Shoal Bay from Sydney?
Shoal Bay is 212 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 167 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Shoal Bay?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Shoal Bay was $52,364 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 Shoal Bay?
The median advertised rent in Shoal Bay is $710 a week for houses (12 listings) and $620 a week for units (4 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Shoal Bay?
The median age of residents in Shoal Bay was 59 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Shoal Bay at risk of bushfire?
Shoal Bay has a high recorded bushfire history (82/100). 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 Shoal Bay?
There is 1 school inside the Shoal Bay boundary: 1 at similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Shoal Bay walkable?
Shoal Bay scores 56/100 on the SuburbScan Walkability Score, making it somewhat 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 Shoal Bay?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Shoal Bay, Williamtown RAAF (32.6 km away), summer days average 28.7°C, winter nights 7.5°C, 1,181 mm of rain a year over 95 rainy days, and 13 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Shoal Bay?
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 Shoal Bay belong to?
Shoal Bay sits within the Port Stephens local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Shoal Bay?
The average residential rates bill through Port Stephens is $1,359 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Shoal Bay?
Across Port Stephens, 495 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 72.1% 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 Shoal Bay in?
Shoal Bay sits within the federal Division of Paterson, currently held by Meryl Swanson (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
- 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.