Located in New South Wales, Sussex Inlet sits 202 km from Sydney CBD, around 2 hours 45 minutes by car. The town has 3,888 residents, a median age of 61, and a median household income of $46,124 per year. On socioeconomic measures it sits in the bottom 20% nationally. Population grew 8.8% from 2016 to 2021. The 2021 Census recorded a median rent of $310 per week and a median monthly mortgage of $1,511. The area shows high bushfire risk and high crime risk. 1 school sits within the town boundary, and walkability is low.
Is Sussex Inlet a good town?
Sussex Inlet scores a D (14/100) on SuburbScan's Liveability grade — weaker on transit, prices, safety, and community.
Mixed results
1 school
Car-dependent
Walkability 23/100 · 201.7 km · 165 min drive to Sydney
Above the state median
Median $760K
High bushfire risk
Fire 90/100 · Crime 71/100
Highly disadvantaged
SEIFA decile 2/10 · median age 61 · 3,888 residents
Liveability Rating
14 / 100 · Ranked #1535 in NSWEach bar is Sussex Inlet'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 Sussex Inlet?
Local knowledge beats any dataset. Rate it and see what other residents think.
Our score
14 / 100
From schools, safety and socio-economic data — not opinion.
Residents say
…
Median House Price
Public listings dataSussex Inlet's house market is moving lower: the median sale price reached $760,000, about 5% below where it sat a year earlier.
Houses
$760,000
Based on 153 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 52 days — median across 74 sales that recorded a listing period
By bedrooms
- 2 bed 18 sales $635K
- 3 bed 60 sales $772K
- 4 bed 55 sales $775K
- 5 bed 6 sales $1.3M
Land
$422,500
Based on 28 recorded sales in the last 24 months.
Typically sold in 65 days — median across 9 sales that recorded a listing period
Currently for Sale
Last 6 monthsHouses in Sussex Inlet are currently listed at around $895,000 on average. Based on 77 houses listed in the past six months.
Houses
$895K
77 houses listed in the last 6 months.
Units
$685K
3 units listed in the last 6 months.
80 of the suburb's 1,739 dwellings (4.6%) were listed for sale in the last 6 months.
Rental Market
Advertised rents · last 6 monthsHouses in Sussex Inlet rent for around $530 a week on average, based on 26 houses listed for rent in the past six months.
$530/wk
26 houses advertised for rent in the last 6 months.
28 rentals advertised against an estimated 344 rented homes (8.1%) in the last 6 months.
Rent agreed on new leases
Jul–Sep 2026- 3-bed houses
- $600/wk
- 116 bonds
- +27% since 2021
- 2-bed units
- $470/wk
- 11 bonds
- +30% since 2021
Median weekly rent on bonds lodged for new tenancies across postcode 2540 (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 2025100 Moderately unaffordable · the average rental household in this region would pay about 30% of its income on the median rent in postcode 2540.
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$530/week ($28,000 a year) on a $895,000 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.
Is Sussex Inlet safe? Crime statistics
2025Crime in Sussex Inlet sits in the high band, with 210 incidents recorded in 2025 — up roughly 24% on the prior year.
210 offences
23.5% since 2024Crime Trend
Serious Road Crashes
2021–20258 crashes
where someone was killed or admitted to hospital
Where they happened
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
Shoalhaven City Council has published 31 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
1988–2024Nearest Eroding Coastline
- Distance
- 5.2 km
- Rate
- -0.03 m/yr
- Net Movement
- -2.3 m
- Certainty
- good
Data Quality
Schools
One school serve Sussex Inlet, and the cohort is trailing peer-suburb performance.
- • 255 students in one school (avg 255)
Primary
Walkability
Sussex Inlet is very car-dependent on foot — at 23/100, nearly all errands require a car. Within the town there are 1 supermarket, 7 parks and 7 cafes to anchor that walking radius.
Public transport
Weekday and weekend service frequency across every stop inside Sussex Inlet.
- Peak (7-9am + 5-7pm)
- 20.8 arrivals/hr
- Off-peak weekday
- 14.4 arrivals/hr
- Saturday
- 4.8 arrivals/hr
- Median peak wait
- 1 min
- Span of service
- 13.0 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 Sussex Inlet.
- Full-fibre (FTTP) share
- 41%
- Premises covered
- 2,930
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
Shoalhaven: 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 11 small areas inside this town and averages them into the single decile above. They fall into 4 different deciles — a wide range, so parts of this town rank well above the average and parts well below it.
Sussex Inlet is home to about 3,900 residents, with a median age of 61 — noticeably older than the national figure of 38. Median household income runs at $46,000 a year, with unemployment at 6.1%.
2021 Census · change since 2016
Population
3,888
Median Age
61
Median Household Income
$46,124/yr
Census Median Rent
$310/wk
Census Median Mortgage
$1,511/mo
Avg Household Size
2.0
Median Personal Income
$25,688/yr
Unemployment Rate
6.1%
Unoccupied Dwellings
46.1%
Total Dwellings
1,739
Owner-Occupier Rate
80.2%
Houses
86.5%
Rental Stress
34.9%
Mortgage Stress
39.3%
Work From Home
12.6%
Dwelling Types
Property Ownership
6 rented from a state or territory housing authority and 11 from a community housing provider, as a share of the 318 rented dwellings above — not of all dwellings.
Demographics
- Born in Australia
- 78.0%
- English Spoken at Home
- 89.2%
- Employment Rate
- 32.9%
- Completed Year 12
- 23.9%
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.
19 residents (0.5%) 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.
9.1% of residents (341) lived in a capital city five years earlier, most of them in Sydney (311).
Top places newcomers came from, as a share of the 3,756 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
1% of employed residents work in a capital's city centre (10 of 1,150).
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 680 people work here; 1,150 employed residents live here.
Mostly a place people commute from: 0.6 jobs per working resident. At least 38% of employed residents must work outside the town.
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 $1,501 a year through Shoalhaven based on 2024 figures.
How this land is zoned
- Environmental 45%
- Rural and farming 25%
- Residential 23%
- Parks and recreation 3%
- Infrastructure and transport 2%
- Industrial 2%
- Not zoned 1%
Planning zones cover 99% of the town's area. The rest is unzoned land such as water or road reserve.
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: Shoalhaven
In the year to August 2026, 854 new dwellings were approved across Shoalhaven. That mix is 513 houses and 341 units. Approvals are down 9.5% on the same period a year earlier.
Aboriginal Land Council
Aboriginal land in this area is administered by the Jerrinja 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 Ulladulla AWS, 25.6 kmHigh rainfall — warm summers, mild winters.
- Elevation
- 34 m
- above sea level, at the town centre
- Distance to the ocean
- 5.2 km
- Annual rainfall
- 1,302 mm
- 100 rainy days
- Summer max (Jan)
- 23.9°C
- 2 days ≥ 35°C
- Winter min (Jul)
- 9.6°C
- 0 frost days ≤ 0°C
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.
Industrial Emissions Nearby
1 facility within 5 km- 3.1 kmSewerage and Drainage ServicesTop reported: Total Nitrogen · Total Phosphorus · Ammonia (total)
EV adoption
In postcode 2540, 206 of 40,088 registered light vehicles are battery-electric on 31 January 2025. A further 2.3% (940 vehicles) are hybrid or plug-in hybrid, taking the non-petrol, non-diesel share to 2.9%.
Rooftop solar
In postcode 2540, 11,477 rooftop-solar systems totalling 73.5 MW have been installed since 2001, against 26,038 dwellings recorded in the 2021 Census. 786 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
6 mortgage brokers are registered in postcode 2540.
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 $760,000 this is $160,000 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 Fiona Phillips Australian Labor Party
| Year | Winner | 2PP ALP | 2PP LNP | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Fiona Phillips | 55.1% | 44.9% | +5.0 |
| 2022 | Fiona Phillips | 50.2% | 49.8% | +2.4 |
| 2019 | Fiona Phillips | 52.6% | 47.4% | -3.3 |
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 Liza Butler Labor
Next state election: 13 March 2027.
| Year | Winner | Won with |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Liza Butler ALP | 53.8% |
| 2019 | Shelley Hancock LP | 60.5% |
| 2015 | Shelley Hancock LP | 59.6% |
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 Sussex Inlet?
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 3,888 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 Sussex Inlet 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 Sussex Inlet
Is Sussex Inlet a safe place to live?
Recorded crime in Sussex Inlet is high (71/100, 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 Sussex Inlet?
Sussex Inlet has a high recorded bushfire history (90/100, 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 Sussex Inlet a good place to live?
Sussex Inlet has a SuburbScan Liveability grade of D (14/100), 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 Sussex Inlet?
Sussex Inlet, NSW had a population of 3,888 at the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census.
What is the postcode for Sussex Inlet, NSW?
The postcode for Sussex Inlet, NSW is 2540.
How far is Sussex Inlet from Sydney?
Sussex Inlet is 202 km from Sydney CBD by road, about 165 minutes by car in normal traffic. Distance is the most-direct driving route, not straight-line.
What is the median household income in Sussex Inlet?
At the 2021 ABS Census, median household income in Sussex Inlet was $46,124 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 Sussex Inlet?
The median advertised rent in Sussex Inlet is $530 a week for houses (26 listings), from rental listings over the last six months.
What is the median age in Sussex Inlet?
The median age of residents in Sussex Inlet was 61 at the 2021 ABS Census.
Is Sussex Inlet at risk of bushfire?
Sussex Inlet has a high recorded bushfire history (90/100). 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 Sussex Inlet?
There is 1 school inside the Sussex Inlet boundary: 1 below similar schools on NAPLAN, compared with same-state, same-type schools of similar socio-educational advantage (ICSEA).
Is Sussex Inlet walkable?
Sussex Inlet scores 23/100 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 weather like in Sussex Inlet?
At the nearest Bureau of Meteorology station to Sussex Inlet, Ulladulla AWS (25.6 km away), summer days average 23.9°C, winter nights 9.6°C, 1,302 mm of rain a year over 100 rainy days, and 2 days a year above 35°C over 2006-2026.
Is the First Home Owner Grant available in Sussex Inlet?
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 Sussex Inlet belong to?
Sussex Inlet sits within the Shoalhaven local government area. Council rates, planning approvals, and waste collection fall under this LGA.
How much are council rates in Sussex Inlet?
The average residential rates bill through Shoalhaven is $1,501 a year (2024). Every suburb in this LGA shares the same schedule — individual bills vary with land value.
How much is being built near Sussex Inlet?
Across Shoalhaven, 854 new residential dwellings were approved in the year to August 2026 (source: ABS Building Approvals). That's down 9.5% 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 Sussex Inlet in?
Sussex Inlet sits within the federal Division of Gilmore, currently held by Fiona Phillips (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.