Ballarat property market: the official numbers
The official read on Ballarat, VIC: who lives there, what they pay in rent and repayments, and where the jobs are. Every figure below is ABS Census 2021 data, linked at the bottom so you can check it yourself.
The straight answer
Median rent in Ballarat was $300 a week at the 2021 Census — 20% below the national median. Repayments ($1,473/mo) ran ahead of rent ($1,300/mo), but not brutally.
What the census counted
The typical repayment ran at about 24% of the median household income. Point-in-time medians, August 2021. Repayments have risen a long way since the 2022–24 rate rises, so use these to compare places, not to price anything today.
Renting vs paying a mortgage
At the census, the typical monthly rent worked out to $1,300 against a typical mortgage repayment of $1,473:
What this gap does and doesn't tell you
The mortgage figure reflects loans and rates as at August 2021, before the 2022–24 rate rises — today's repayment on a new loan would be higher. The rent figure is what tenants were actually paying, not today's asking rents. The useful signal is the shape: where rent and repayments sit close together, buying has historically competed well with renting here; where repayments tower over rent, the market prices in growth. Run your own numbers with the mortgage vs invest tool or what can I afford?
The owner–renter split
Renters are 31.9% of Ballarat households. If you're buying to let, that's the depth of your market — about the national norm.
Who calls Ballarat home
What the age mix means for housing
A heavy 25–44 band usually means family housing demand (and pressure on 3–4 bedroom stock); a heavy 65+ band signals downsizer and retiree demand (units, single-level living, proximity to health care). Ballarat's median age of 38 sits right on the national median of 38.
Where the pay cheques come from
19.2% of Ballarat's 52,182 workers are in health care & social assistance. That's the engine under local housing demand — worth knowing how it's running before you buy.
What it costs to buy in VIC
We don't republish licensed price feeds, so for today's sale prices check a licensed source. The costs of buying, though, are public and exact:
- Stamp duty in Victoria — exact duty and first-home-buyer concessions.
- What can I afford? — borrowing power, price range and all-in upfront cash.
- The official VIC price trend — ABS state-level values since 2011, interactive.
Quick answers
What is the median rent in Ballarat?
At the 2021 Census the median rent in Ballarat was $300 a week — 20% below the national median ($375/wk). Rents have moved since 2021; check current listings for today's asking rents.
How many people live in Ballarat?
111,973 people at the 2021 Census, with a median age of 38 (national median: 38). Ballarat is one of Victoria's significant urban areas as defined by the ABS.
What do people in Ballarat do for work?
The biggest employing industry is health care & social assistance, followed by education & training (ABS Census 2021). The industry mix shapes how resilient local housing demand is.
Where this leaves you
Your call
Neither a cashflow bargain nor a pure scarcity play: rent covered about 88% of the typical repayment at the census. That middle ground tends to suit owner-occupiers better than spreadsheet investors. The catch is concentration: health care & social assistance carries 19.2% of local jobs, and that cuts both ways — it drives housing demand in the good years and takes it away in the bad ones.
Everything above is August 2021 — before you act, pull current asking rents, vacancy and listing volumes for Ballarat. Then run your own numbers: what can I afford? for borrowing power and upfront cash, and the Victoria stamp duty calculator for the tax bill.
More VIC snapshots
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General information only — not financial or property advice. All figures are ABS Census 2021 ( official QuickStats for Ballarat, CC-BY 4.0), which predates the 2022–24 rate rises; conditions have moved since. Last reviewed 10 July 2026.