South Kempsey NSW 2440
South Kempsey is a suburb in New South Wales, 421 km from Sydney CBD, around 4 hours 50 minutes by car. Population is 2,604; the median age is 42 and the median household income is $55,848 per year. By household income, education, and employment patterns, it ranks in the bottom 20% nationally. The suburb grew 13.1% between 2016 and 2021. At the 2021 Census, households here paid a median rent of $270 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,300. South Kempsey is characterised by high crime risk and high bushfire risk. 4 schools sit within the suburb boundary, and walkability is low.
Is South Kempsey a good suburb?
South Kempsey scores a D (8/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — strong on prices, weaker on schools, transit, safety, and community.
Below the state average
4 schools
Car-dependent
Walkability 0/100 · 421.4 km · 289 min drive to Sydney
More affordable than most
Median $415K · More affordable than 80% of NSW
High crime risk
Fire 67/100 · Crime 97/100
Highly disadvantaged
SEIFA decile 1/10 · median age 42 · 2,604 residents
Liveability Rating
8 / 100 · Ranked #1564 in NSWEach bar is South Kempsey'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 South Kempsey?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
8 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataSouth Kempsey's house market is moving lower: the median sale price reached $415,000, roughly 16% below where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$415,000
12% below its 6 neighbours (median $470,000)
Based on 73 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 52 days — median across 28 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 10 sales $402K
- 3 bed 43 sales $408K
- 4 bed 12 sales $384K
Land
$320,000
Based on 26 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 48 days — median across 9 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in South Kempsey are currently listed at around $610,000 on average, with the typical listing on the market for 4 days. Based on 16 houses listed in the past six months.
$610K
16 houses listed in the last 6 months — typical time on market 4 days.
16 of the suburb's 890 dwellings (1.8%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in South Kempsey rent for around $550 a week on average, based on 12 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$550/wk
12 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
13 rentals advertised against an estimated 307 rented homes (4.2%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $520/wk
- 34 bonds
- +34% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $430/wk
- 15 bonds
- +33% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2440 (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 2025122 Acceptable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 25% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2440.
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$550/week ($29,000 a year) on a $610,000 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.
Short-Stay Rentals
7 active Airbnb listings: 6 whole homes and 1 room. Whole homes are about 0.6% 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 South Kempsey safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in South Kempsey sits in the high band, with 613 incidents recorded in 2025 — down roughly 10% on the prior year.
613 offences
10.5% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–202512 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital, 1 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
Kempsey 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.
Schools
Four schools serve South Kempsey, and the cohort is trailing peer-suburb performance.
- • 1,030 students across 4 schools (avg 258)
- • Sectors: 2 Independent, 2 Government
- • ICSEA 767-953, median 818 (below the national baseline of 1000)
- • Largest: Kempsey Adventist School (458 students)
Primary
Secondary
Combined
Walkability
South Kempsey is very car-dependent on foot — at 0/100, nearly all errands require a car.
We hold no public transport timetable data for this area, so public transport is not rated here and the score is spread across the remaining components. It is not counted as zero.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside South Kempsey.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 21.8 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 9.0 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 0.2 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 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 South Kempsey.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 26%
- Premises covered
- 1,298
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
Kempsey: 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 8 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.
South Kempsey is home to about 2,600 residents, with a median age of 42, a touch above the national 38. Median household income runs at $56,000 a year, with unemployment at 10.6%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
2,604
Median Age
42
Median Household Income
$55,848/yr
Census Median Rent
$270/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,300/mo
Avg Household Size
2.6
Median Personal Income
$27,404/yr
Unemployment Rate
10.6%
Unoccupied Dwellings
8.7%
Total Dwellings
890
Owner-Occupier Rate
65.5%
Houses
90.4%
Rental Stress
25.1%
Mortgage Stress
27.9%
Work From Home
8.3%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
36 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 34 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 288 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 81.1%
- English Spoken at Home
- 86.0%
- Employment Rate
- 40.5%
- Completed Year 12
- 21.6%
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.
3 residents (0.1%) 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.
3.3% of residents (81) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (59).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 2,459 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
Education
Cars per Dwelling
Council Rates
Households face an average residential rates bill of $1,447 a year through Kempsey based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Rural and farming 64%
- Residential 14%
- Environmental 11%
- Infrastructure and transport 5%
- Industrial 4%
- Parks and recreation 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: Kempsey
In the year to August 2026, 144 new dwellings were approved across Kempsey. That mix is 83 houses and 61 units. Approvals are up 380.0% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Kempsey 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.
Setting
- Elevation
- 34 m
- above sea level, at the suburb centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 13.7 km
- Near high-voltage lines
- 1.0% of addresses
- 17 within 100 m of an overhead line of 110 kV or more
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
3 facilities within 5 km- 2.7 kmPetroleum Product WholesalingTop reported: Total Volatile Organic Compounds · n-Hexane · Toluene (methylbenzene)
- 2.8 km
- 3.4 kmSolid Waste Collection ServicesTop reported: Lead & compounds · Zinc and compounds
EV adoption
In postcode 2440, 24 of 18,636 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 1.6% (295 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 1.7%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2440, 4,823 rooftop-solar systems totalling 31.2 MW have been installed since 2001, against 9,086 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 222 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 $415,000 this is under 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 Pat Conaghan The Nationals
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Pat Conaghan | 40.9% | 59.1% | +0.5 |
| 2022 | Pat Conaghan | 40.5% | 59.5% | -2.4 |
| 2019 | Pat Conaghan | 38.1% | 61.9% | -0.7 |
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 Michael Kemp The Nationals
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Michael Kemp NP | 62.8% |
| 2019 | Melinda Pavey NP | 64.9% |
| 2015 | Melinda Pavey NP | 60.9% |
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 South Kempsey?
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 2,604 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
West Kempsey NSW 2440
Crescent Head NSW 2440
East Kempsey NSW 2440
Dondingalong NSW 2440
Kundabung NSW 2441
Kempsey NSW 2440
Compare South Kempsey 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 South Kempsey
Is South Kempsey a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in South Kempsey is high (97/100, 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 South Kempsey?
South Kempsey has a moderate recorded bushfire history (67/100, 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 South Kempsey a good place to live?
South Kempsey has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (8/100), 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 South Kempsey?
South Kempsey, NSW had a population of 2,604 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for South Kempsey, NSW?
The postcode for South Kempsey, NSW is 2440.
How far is South Kempsey from Sydney?
South Kempsey is 421 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 289 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in South Kempsey?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in South Kempsey was $55,848 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 South Kempsey?
The median advertised rent in South Kempsey is $550 a week for houses (12 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in South Kempsey?
The median age of residents in South Kempsey was 42 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is South Kempsey at risk of bushfire?
South Kempsey has a moderate recorded bushfire history (67/100). 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 South Kempsey?
There are 4 schools inside the South Kempsey boundary: 2 at and 2 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in South Kempsey?
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 South Kempsey belong to?
South Kempsey sits within the Kempsey local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in South Kempsey?
The average residential rates bill through Kempsey is $1,447 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near South Kempsey?
Across Kempsey, 144 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's up 380.0% 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 South Kempsey in?
South Kempsey sits within the federal Division of Cowper, currently held by Pat Conaghan (The Nationals).
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
- 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.
See Data Sources and How We Calculate for details.