Carlton, Melbourne: house prices, rent and what to check before you buy
Carlton median house price: $1,435,000 in the calendar year 2025, from 65 sales (Valuer-General Victoria), up 3.2% on the calendar year 2024. The Jan–Mar 2026 quarter had too few house sales to report a median. Median unit price: $377,000 (Jan–Mar 2026 quarter). Median rent: $620 a week (DFFH Rental Report, year to Sep 2025). Postcode 3053.
What stands out: Part of Carlton is under a Public Acquisition Overlay (land reserved for a future public work); a heritage overlay covers 69% of the suburb's land (Vicmap Planning).
Page updated · market data to Mar 2026
- Zoning: mostly Mixed Use zone (MUZ), 19% of the land
- Planning change: 3 parcels rezoned and new overlays of 2 types since 2017, latest in 2025 (details)
- School zones: parts of Carlton are zoned for Carlton Gardens Primary School and Carlton North Primary School (+2 more) (primary); Collingwood College and Fitzroy High School (+2 more) (secondary)
- Getting there: 9 min to Parkville by public transport (modelled)
- House median
- $1,435,000
- calendar year 2025 · up 3.2% on calendar year 2024
- Higher than 77% of the 423 Greater Melbourne suburbs with a reliable house median · 65 sales in the year
- Valuer-General Victoria
- Unit median
- $377,000
- Mar qtr 2026 · up 5.6% on Mar qtr 2025
- Higher than 1% of the 319 Greater Melbourne suburbs with a reliable unit median · 128 sales in the quarter
- Valuer-General Victoria
- Median rent
- $620/wk
- year to Sep 2025
- Higher than 86% of the 484 Greater Melbourne suburbs with a reliable rent figure · from 2,495 leases
- DFFH Rental Report
- Gross yield
- 2.2%
- rent year to Sep 2025 / house median 2025
- Higher than 35% of the 156 Greater Melbourne suburbs with a reliable gross yield
- Calculated by Delora from the two figures above
- Planning risk
- Flood 5% LowBushfire 0% Very lowHeritage 69% Very high
- share of suburb land area
- 3 suburb-specific overlays to check
- Vicmap Planning
- Getting around
- 0.9 km to nearest station
- 9 min to Parkville by public transport (modelled)
- 4 zoned primary, 4 secondary schools
- PTV timetable data · Delora commute model · Victorian Department of Education school zones
Carlton is a suburb with a young population — median age 27, less socio-economically advantaged than most areas on the ABS's SEIFA index. Housing is mixed, with a meaningful share of apartments and units (around 81%) alongside houses. The area is dense with cafés, shops and everyday amenity. It's close to the city and well served by both train and tram.
Ready to look at a specific property here? See the due diligence hub for what to verify before you sign.
Scope: Victoria, Australia. Suburb data here is Victorian (state valuer, rental, planning and school records); Greater Melbourne comparison group.
In this profile
- Planning and riskZones, overlays, flood and bushfire, and what is planned nearby, with an address check.
- Prices and rentsMedian prices and rents, how they have moved, and sales volume.
- SchoolsThe government school zones that cover the suburb.
- Living hereTransport, commute times, who lives here and the suburbs nearby.
- Before you buyThe checks every purchase needs, common questions and guides.
Risk and planning in Carlton
Carlton is among the most heritage-dense suburbs Delora covers — around 69% sits under a Heritage Overlay — so many homes are period properties where demolition and even external changes need a planning permit. Parts of the suburb (about 5%) sit under flood-related overlays.
Suburb-wide shares of the land, not a check of any one address.
Flood-related overlays can add building rules and raise insurance cost.
Share of the suburb. Source: Vicmap Planning · Verify this address
If it applies it adds bushfire construction requirements (a BAL rating) and cost.
Share of the suburb. Source: Vicmap Planning · Verify this address
No part of Carlton is in a designated bushfire prone area. That is the building system’s map, not proof that bushfire can’t reach the suburb.
Share of the suburb. Source: Designated Bushfire Prone Area (DataVic) · Verify this address
Changes to the outside of a building, and demolition, need council approval. 93 named overlay areas (HO1, HO69, HO992 +90 more) — oldest gazetted 1999.
Share of the suburb. Source: Vicmap Planning · Verify this address
On summer mornings in 2017–18 the ground surface across Carlton averaged 8.1 °C above the non-urban baseline, cooler than 60% of metropolitan Melbourne suburbs. (Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, for the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, verified 23 Oct 2026) Tree cover was 15.4%, more tree cover than 64% of these suburbs.
It measures the surface, not the air temperature, and is a guide to exposure, not a forecast. (Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, for the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, verified 23 Oct 2026) Streets vary: Address Check shows the figure for an address.
Averaged over the suburb’s mesh blocks. Source: Urban Heat Islands and Urban Vegetation 2018 (DataVic)
Worth checking in Carlton
Public Acquisition Overlay
Part of Carlton is reserved for a future public work (e.g. a road or rail project) under a Public Acquisition Overlay — land it covers can be compulsorily acquired by the authority. Check whether this specific property is affected before you commit.
Heritage Overlay likely
About 69% of Carlton sits under a Heritage Overlay — a high-heritage suburb. Check whether one applies to this property: it can restrict demolition, extensions and even exterior paint colours, and a permit is needed for changes. Confirm it’s disclosed in the planning section.
Check for a flood overlay
Parts of Carlton (~5%) sit under flood-related overlays. Confirm whether this address is affected.
Zoning mix and building controls
Land use across the suburb (planning zones)
- Zoning
- Residential
- mostly Mixed Use Zone (MUZ) · 19% of the suburb
Planning overlays that can affect building, renovating or removing vegetation somewhere in Carlton — confirm whether any apply to the specific address.
- Design & Development Overlay — height, setback or design rules on new building
- Environmental Significance Overlay — environmental values that constrain development
Planning changes in Carlton: 3 recorded since 2017
Since 2017, 3 parcels were downzoned (allowed less housing) on land in Carlton. Each row below is one gazetted amendment — a batch of parcels changed together in the same notice, not a single lot — the kind of thing that moves land value and that portals don’t show.
Source: Vicmap Planning Scheme History (2017–present); parcel-level zone & overlay changes grouped by suburb, zone transition and gazettal batch. A suburb-level record — confirm the specific parcel. See how Melbourne’s zoning changed over the decade →
- Suburb
- Heritage
- Flood
Layers on this map, as a table
| Layer | Share of suburb | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Suburb boundary | The whole suburb | ABS SAL 2021 |
| Heritage overlay | 69% | Vicmap Planning |
| Flood overlay | 5% | Vicmap Planning |
Overlay colours reflect how much of the suburb an overlay covers — green under ~8%, amber ~8–20%, red above 20%. Public-acquisition, contamination (EAO) and floodway overlays are listed above under "Worth checking" wherever they apply, because even a small area can include a specific property. Source: Vicmap Planning. What do these terms mean? · How to verify planning controls for an address
Cost and market in Carlton
Market pulse: is Carlton busier or quieter than a year ago?
VGV sales to Mar 2026 · DFFH rents to Sep 2025 · ABS approvals to Aug 2026
| Measure | Change | What it's based on |
|---|---|---|
| House prices | Not measured | The Valuer-General flags the median for the Jan–Mar 2026 quarter or the same quarter a year earlier as based on too few sales to compare. |
| Houses sold | −1.9% · about the same | 53 houses sold in the four quarters to Mar 2026, against 54 in the four quarters before. |
| Unit prices | +5.6% · mixed | Median unit $377,000 in the Jan–Mar 2026 quarter (128 sales), against $357,000 a year earlier (124 sales). The quarter before: −21.7%. |
| Rents (all homes) | +6.9% · rising | Median $620 a week for new leases in the year to Sep 2025, against $580 a year earlier. These are the figures for DFFH's Carlton-Parkville rental area, which covers more than one suburb. |
| New leases | −5.8% · about the same | 2,593 new lettings in the year to Sep 2025, against 2,753 a year earlier. These are the figures for DFFH's Carlton-Parkville rental area, which covers more than one suburb. |
| New homes approved (council) | +51.1% · more | 4,741 dwellings approved across the council Sep 2025 to Aug 2026, against 3,137 in the 12 months before. |
What sales volume tells you → Reading rental demand →
Among the 8 other Melbourne suburbs with a comparable units figure for that quarter, 6 changed less and 2 changed more. Across the 137 Victorian suburbs on Delora with a comparable figure, the middle change was +3.9%. Over 5 years the calendar-year median unit price went from $340,000 (2020) to $350,000 (2025), +2.9% or about +0.6% a year.
Checking an asking price in Carlton
A suburb median is the middle sale, not the value of any one home. Here, the middle unit sale in the Jan–Mar 2026 quarter was $377,000 (128 sales): half sold for more, half for less, so a price above it isn't overpaying on its own. It's a gap the comparable sales should explain, through land size, condition or position.
- Ask the agent for the Property Price Statement (a listing from before the change may still carry a Statement of Information (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 27 Sep 2026)). It gives an indicative price and the three most comparable sales (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 30 Jul 2026), and since it replaced the Statement of Information in the 2026 underquoting reform it also lists the bedrooms, bathrooms, floor area and land size of each comparable home (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 27 Sep 2026).
- Check those sales really are comparable: a similar standard of home, sold within 2 km in the last 6 months in metropolitan Melbourne, or within 5 km in the last 18 months elsewhere (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 30 Jul 2026).
- An advertised price is a guide only, and a home selling above it isn't by itself proof of underquoting (Consumer Affairs Victoria, verified 30 Jul 2026).
What open data can't tell you
Auction clearance rates, days on market, the number of homes for sale and how far sellers drop their price are not published as open government data. They come from private listing and data companies under paid licences, so Delora doesn't show them. For a home you're looking at, ask the agent how long it has been listed, whether it was passed in at auction, and what its first price guide was.
How the market pulse is worked out
Prices compare the latest quarterly median with the same quarter a year earlier, using only quarters with at least 20 sales and no thin-market flag from the Valuer-General. A direction is called only when the quarter before agrees: both changes at least +3% is rising, both at most −3% is falling, both within 3% is about the same, anything else is mixed. Sales compare the latest four quarters with the four before (a change of 10% or more counts as more or fewer). Sales are counted when they settle (Valuer-General Victoria / Land Use Victoria, verified 29 Jul 2026), so these figures trail contracts signed in the last few months.
Rents are the Rental Report's moving-annual median for all homes, from new lettings only (Homes Victoria / Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, verified 29 Jul 2026), compared with the same quarter a year earlier (3% band); new leases use a 10% band. Dwelling approvals are the ABS count for the whole council, not this suburb; an approval is the permit to start building, not a finished home (Australian Bureau of Statistics, verified 27 Sep 2026) (10% band). The reading at the top uses the price direction and sales count of houses, or of units where houses have no comparable figure.
Sources: Victorian Property Sales Report (data.vic), Rental Report (data.vic), ABS Building Approvals (all CC BY 4.0).
| Median house price (2025) | $1,435,000 |
|---|---|
| Stamp duty | $78,925 |
| Land Use Victoria transfer and mortgage fees | $3,592.20 |
| Government costs on top of the price | $82,517.20 |
Work out your own figure in the stamp duty calculator →
Price outlook: what the Carlton median could be in 3 and 5 years
Start from the 2025 calendar-year median house price here, $1,435,000. For suburbs like Carlton, three-year outcomes since 2016 put the 2028 median between $1,231,301 and $1,828,612 in about 76% of cases (the range was aimed at 80%; that is how often it held on years it had not seen), with $1,501,256 in the middle. The chance the median is lower than today in three years is about 38%: a substantial chance, not a remote one. A large part of that spread is the market rather than the suburb: 35% of the variation in three-year outcomes across Victorian suburbs is explained by the year the clock started.
| Horizon | Range (aimed at 80%) | Middle | Chance it is lower | Range held on unseen years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In 3 years (2028) | $1,231,301 to $1,828,612 | $1,501,256 (+5%) | 38% | 76% of 7 years |
| In 5 years (2030) | $1,267,569 to $1,821,257 | $1,482,923 (+3%) | 42% | 74% of 5 years |
How to use this
- If you might need to sell within three years, the bottom of the range and the chance of a lower median are the figures that matter most, with selling costs on top.
- The range is for the suburb's median, not for one home. A home bought above the median, or one with a problem the address report turns up, can do worse than the suburb.
- A wide range is the honest answer. A single-number forecast for a suburb hides this spread; treat one as a middle value with a range like this around it.
How the price outlook is worked out
The model starts from the Valuer-General's calendar-year median house price for every Victorian suburb with one (Valuer-General Victoria / Land Use Victoria, verified 29 Jul 2026), from 2016 onward. For each year and suburb it asks what happened to the median three and five years later, and relates that to what was knowable at the time: the suburb's one- and three-year price momentum, its price level against the state, a fair-value gap (the residual of a within-year regression of price on slow suburb characteristics: socio-economic index, distance to the CBD and the coast, income, education and commuting), gross rental yield where the Rental Report covers the suburb, and the socio-economic index and distance to the CBD themselves. Quantile regression estimates the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles directly.
Every year is then held out in turn: the model is refitted without that year's outcomes and its ranges are checked against them. The published range is the model's middle plus the 10th and 90th percentiles of those held-out errors, so the range was tuned to contain 80% of past outcomes (conformal calibration); the "range held" figure is measured on years the calibration never saw. "Chance it is lower" is the share of held-out errors that would leave the median below the starting price. Across 773 suburbs and 7 starting years (2016 to 2022), the 80% range held 76% of the time and the 50% range 45%. The three-year range held 76%, short of the 80% it was aimed at, so read it as somewhat too narrow: the real chance of an outcome outside it is closer to 24% than 20%. The five-year range held 74%, short of the 80% it was aimed at, so read it as somewhat too narrow: the real chance of an outcome outside it is closer to 26% than 20%.
| Bought, then sold | Suburbs | Inside the range aimed at 80% | Inside the range aimed at 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 to 2019 | 745 | 80% | 57% |
| 2017 to 2020 | 766 | 89% | 71% |
| 2018 to 2021 | 782 | 80% | 47% |
| 2019 to 2022 | 786 | 61% | 29% |
| 2020 to 2023 | 786 | 84% | 62% |
| 2021 to 2024 | 777 | 93% | 37% |
| 2022 to 2025 | 771 | 45% | 11% |
Limits. A short run of yearly medians gives only 7 starting years, so the market effect is estimated from that many draws and the ranges are wide. Suburb characteristics other than momentum and yield are held at today's values for past years. A median from few sales is noisy, and VGV's thin-market medians are left out. The model is calibrated on 2016-2025; a market without precedent in that period can fall outside every range. It never values an individual home.
Model outlook-qr-v1, run 2026-10-27. Source: Victorian Property Sales Report, time series (data.vic), CC BY 4.0. The code is analysis/price_outlook.py in Delora's repository.
General information, not financial advice. It describes how suburb medians have behaved, not what any home will sell for.
How Carlton compares
Where Carlton ranks against other Greater Melbourne suburbs Delora covers, on the measures buyers ask about — a higher bar isn’t always “better”, it’s just where this suburb sits.
Show recorded crime and amenity-density comparisons
New development pipeline: ~401 new dwellings · 5 major projects · 98% apartments
Major residential redevelopment tracked by the Victorian Government (UDP 2025) — infill and apartment/townhouse sites, not greenfield house-and-land estates.
City of Melbourne tracks a fuller, building-by-building picture here — 72 development sites, ~4,016 dwellings (including smaller projects).
Schools
Parts of Carlton fall within 4 primary and 4 secondary government school catchments. 2 schools are located within the suburb (2 government).
Government schools have address-based catchment zones; Catholic and independent schools set their own enrolment processes.
| Zone | Covers | Boundary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary school zones | |||
| Carlton Gardens Primary School | 62% | — | |
| Carlton Primary School | 35% | — | |
| Secondary school zones | |||
| University High School | 87% | — | |
| Princes Hill Secondary College | 9% | — | |
| Collingwood College | 4% | — | |
| Collingwood College | 4% | — | |
Getting around from Carlton
2 train, 15 tram and 37 bus stop points sit inside the suburb (PTV timetable data).
- Distance to the CBD
- ~1.5 km
- from the suburb centre
- Getting around
- 2 train · 15 tram · 37 bus
- nearest train station ~0.9 km · counts are stop points, not stations (a station is often several)
- Train frequency
- every 5 min
- at the nearest station, weekday AM peak
- Tram frequency
- every 5 min
- at the nearest stop, weekday AM peak
- Schools
- 2
- primary & secondary
- Nearest Centrelink
- ~2.6 km
- outside the suburb
| Job hub | Minutes |
|---|---|
| Parkville | 9 min |
| Melbourne CBD | 15 min |
| East Melbourne | 22 min |
| Docklands | 22 min |
| Southbank | 22 min |
| South Yarra | 30 min |
Show all 16 job hubs
| Job hub | Minutes |
|---|---|
| Cremorne | 30 min |
| South Melbourne | 32 min |
| Preston | 39 min |
| Port Melbourne Industrial | 44 min |
| Laverton | 51 min |
| Campbellfield | 69 min |
| Clayton (Monash University) | 70 min |
| Dandenong | 70 min |
| Mulgrave | 90 min |
| Geelong | 100 min |
Everyday amenity (OpenStreetMap)
- Cafés & amenity density
- 57 cafés
- High café & amenity density — plenty within a stroll
- Restaurants
- 103
- places to eat nearby
- Supermarkets
- 7
- grocery stores nearby
- Pharmacies
- 6
- chemists nearby
- Hospitals
- 1
- in the suburb
- Parks
- 22
- green space nearby
- Childcare
- 0
- centres nearby
- GP & medical centres
- 6
- nearby
Who lives in Carlton
— 16,055 residents · median age 27 · 23% own their home · SEIFA 3/10
- Population
- 16,055
- usual residents (Census 2021)
- Owner-occupied
- 23%
- 23% own, 52% private rent, 10% social, 15% other or not stated
- Median age
- 27 yrs
- of residents
- Personal income
- $659/wk
- median, per week
- Household income
- $1,292/wk
- median, per week
- Avg household size
- 1.8 people
- people per home · 24% live alone, 24% share housing
- Monthly mortgage
- $1,898/mo
- median repayment
- Taxpayer income
- $35,354/yr
- median taxable income, per year (ATO)
- Population growth
- no data
- Recorded crime
- 281 per 1,000 residents
- a year, across all of Melbourne council, not just Carlton · higher than most VIC councils
In Carlton itself: 3,053 recorded offences in the year to 2026 (Crime Statistics Agency, matched by suburb name and postcode — a closer figure than the council-wide band above, though still a count, not a rate per resident).
Offence category mix (Melbourne council's mix, latest year):
- Property and deception offences63%
- Crimes against the person15%
- Justice procedures offences10%
- Public order and security offences6%
- Drug offences6%
- Other offences1%
Recorded offences by year, Carlton (up 61% since 2019):
| Year | Offences |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,902 |
| 2020 | 1,962 |
| 2021 | 1,853 |
| 2022 | 2,230 |
| 2023 | 2,445 |
| 2024 | 2,671 |
| 2025 | 3,350 |
| 2026 | 3,053 |
- Median household incomeup 126%
- Median personal incomeup 96%
- Median weekly rentdown 5%
- Median ageolder by 3 years
How advantaged the area is
Deciles 1–10 vs all Victorian areas — 10 = most advantaged — from the ABS SEIFA index. A demographic measure, not a house-price one. These three don’t always move together — a suburb with lots of renters or students, for example, can score high on education but lower on income and housing costs.
- Overall advantage
- 3/10
- Less advantaged than most
- Economic resources
- 1/10
- income, housing costs & wealth
- Education & occupation
- 10/10
- qualifications & skilled jobs
The homes here
Mix of dwelling types across the suburb (Census 2021)
Who owns and rents here (Census 2021)
More detail on building height and bedroom mix (Census 2021)
Apartment building height (share of all dwellings in the suburb, not just apartments):
- Low-rise (1–2 storeys): 3%
- Mid-rise (3–8 storeys): 29%
- High-rise (9+ storeys): 49%
Bedroom mix (share of all occupied dwellings):
- Studio or 1 bedroom: 32%
- 2 bedrooms: 47%
- 3 bedrooms: 14%
- 4 or more bedrooms: 5%
Not sure whether a house, townhouse or apartment suits you? Decide what to buy →
Recorded crime is a council-wide rate — every offence police logged over the latest year (theft, property damage, drug and traffic offences and the like, not only violent crime) divided by the council’s residents. A broad area signal, not a figure for this exact street.
All figures are suburb-level indicators, not property-specific — always confirm the exact address on the Section 32. Sources: ABS Census 2021, Valuer-General Victoria, DFFH Rental Report, Crime Statistics Agency Victoria, Vicmap Planning, Victorian Government UDP, Victorian Department of Education (schools & zones, via data.vic, CC BY 4.0), OpenStreetMap.
Suburbs near Carlton
The 6 closest suburbs with a Delora page, by distance between suburb centres.
Compare with nearby suburbs
Before you buy in Carlton
Overlay and pipeline checks specific to Carlton are in the Planning and risk tab. Two checks apply to every purchase.
Easements & covenants
Check Section 3 for easements (e.g. drainage/sewer along a boundary — you usually can’t build over them) and restrictive covenants (single-dwelling, materials, height) that limit your plans.
Owners corporation (if applicable)
Apartments and many townhouses in Carlton are in an owners corporation. If so, the statement must include its certificate — review annual fees, any special levies, the maintenance fund and insurance.
Already under contract in Carlton?
Questions about Carlton
What is the median house price in Carlton?
The median house price in Carlton was $1,435,000 in the calendar year 2025 (Valuer-General Victoria), up 3.2% on a year earlier. The Jan–Mar 2026 quarter had too few house sales to report a median. The median unit price was $377,000 (Jan–Mar 2026 quarter).
What postcode is Carlton?
Carlton is in postcode 3053, in the Melbourne council area, Victoria.
What is the population of Carlton?
Carlton had 16,055 usual residents at the 2021 Census (ABS), with a median age of 27.
Is Carlton in a flood zone?
About 5% of Carlton's land is under a flood-related planning overlay (LSIO, SBO or floodway), and less than 1% is under the Bushfire Management Overlay (Vicmap Planning). These are suburb-wide shares: whether an overlay applies to one property depends on the address, so check it on VicPlan and in the Section 32.
What should I check in a Section 32 for Carlton?
For Carlton, pay particular attention to heritage overlays (about 69% of the suburb is affected), any flood-related overlay (about 5% of the land), easements and restrictive covenants on the title, and — for apartments — the owners-corporation certificate with its fees and any special levies.
Show all 3 more questions
Does Carlton have heritage overlays?
About 69% of Carlton sits under a Heritage Overlay — a high-heritage suburb. Confirm whether one applies to this property in the Section 32's planning section; it restricts demolition, extensions and even exterior paint colours, and a permit is needed for changes.
How is Carlton zoned?
Most of Carlton (19% of the land) is in the Mixed Use (MUZ), then GRZ1 (17%) and PPRZ (13%) (Vicmap Planning). The zone and its schedule set what can be built; check the exact zone for an address on VicPlan.
Which school zones cover Carlton?
Parts of Carlton are in the government school zones for primary: Carlton Gardens Primary School, Carlton North Primary School, Carlton Primary School, North Melbourne Primary School; secondary: Collingwood College, Fitzroy High School, Princes Hill Secondary College, University High School (Victorian Department of Education school zones). A suburb can span several zones: the exact address decides which applies, so confirm it at findmyschool.vic.gov.au.
Guides for buying in Carlton
The heritage, flood and bushfire figures in Planning and risk are suburb-wide — they tell you how common an overlay is here, not whether it applies to one specific address. Confirm via VicPlan and an in-person inspection before you rely on them.
Thinking of buying in Carlton?
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