CairnleaVIC · suburb profile
VIC 3023 · Brimbank
Daily life in Cairnlea is characterized by a strong sense of community and family-oriented activities. The suburb has a high rate of car usage for commuting, with 57.9% of residents driving to work, while public transport usage is relatively low at 4.6%. The work-from-home rate is 19%, lower than the Victorian average of 25.7%, indicating a more traditional commuting pattern.
Sales · 12 months to August 2026
What property sold for in Cairnlea
Houses · Across 73 sales, houses in Cairnlea reached a median of $926,000, 4% down year on year and just above the middle of the Victorian range.
Half of all houses landed in the $810,000 to $1,170,000 range.
Houses
$926k
median of 73 sales
4% down on the previous twelve months.
Dearer than 56% of the 426 suburbs we cover in Victoria.
Half sold between $810k and $1.17m.
Last sold within the past two weeks
Units
$420k
median of 19 sales
Too few sales to be reliable — treat as a rough guide
Half sold between $373k and $440k.
Last sold one to two months ago
Land
$650k
median of 5 sales
Too few sales to be reliable — treat as a rough guide
Half sold between $355k and $856k.
Last sold four to eight months ago
97 sales on record · data to 30 August 2026
Since 2022
How prices have moved
Houses · Houses were $942,000 in 2022 and are $926,000 today: four years of very little.
- Houses
- Units
- Land
Dashed lines and hollow points are part years — incomplete, so a dip may only mean fewer sales have happened yet. A break in a line is a year with no published figure, not a fall to zero.
| Year | Houses | Units | Land |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 · part year | $976k | $420k | |
| 2025 · part year | $931k | $410k | $658k |
| 2024 | $933k | $414k | |
| 2023 | $940k | $425k | |
| 2022 | $942k | $425k |
Quarter by quarter
| Quarter | Median | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q2 | $1.11m | 10 | +24.4%low confidence10 sales this quarter, 23 the quarter before. Under 30 either side, the movement is mostly which homes happened to sell rather than the market moving. |
| 2026 Q1 | $893k | 23 | +1.2%low confidence23 sales this quarter, 28 the quarter before. Under 30 either side, the movement is mostly which homes happened to sell rather than the market moving. |
| 2025 Q4 | $882k | 28 |
| Quarter | Median | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q1 | $420k | 7 | +2.4%low confidence7 sales this quarter, 5 the quarter before. Under 30 either side, the movement is mostly which homes happened to sell rather than the market moving. |
| 2025 Q4 | $410k | 5 |
A change is marked low confidence where either quarter had fewer than 30 sales. The medians are real; with a handful of sales the movement between them is mostly which homes happened to change hands, not the market moving.
Last 12 months
What an extra bedroom costs in Cairnlea
Houses
In Cairnlea, over the last 12 months, a four-bedroom house has a median of $1 million from 31 sales, while a three-bedroom house has a median of $810,000 from 25 sales.
| Bedrooms | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | $810k | 25 · few |
| 4 | $1.00m | 31 |
| 5 | $1.39m | 11 · few |
Units
In Cairnlea, over the last 12 months, a two-bedroom unit has a median of $434,000 from 14 sales, while a one-bedroom unit has a median of $325,000 from 5 sales.
| Bedrooms | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $325k | 5 · few |
| 2 | $434k | 14 · few |
Counts with fewer than five sales are left out rather than estimated, and bigger does not always mean dearer — a bedroom count with few sales can be pulled either way by the particular homes that happened to change hands.
1 school · 2025 figures
Who goes to school in Cairnlea
All schools · Cairnlea has a single school, with 776 students.
Schools here
1
1 primary
Students, all schools
776
2025 · −11.6% since 2015
At primary schoolsStudents at schools whose type is “Primary”. It excludes children in primary years at a Prep-to-12 college — they are counted in the tile beside this one. This number answers “are the primary schools here filling or emptying?”
−9.5%
776 students · five years
Children in primary yearsChildren in Years 1–6 at any school, including Prep-to-12 colleges. This answers “are there still young families here?” — a different question from the tile on the left, which is why the two can move in opposite directions.
Prep and ungraded students are counted separately again; see the chart below.
−6.9%
674 · Years 1–6, anywhere
11 years · two ways to read them
Enrolments, 2015–2025
The same students, counted two ways — by the kind of school they attend, and by the year they are in. They answer different questions and can point in different directions. Both views are in the page; the buttons only change which is visible.
Enrolments in Cairnlea have fallen 11.6% over 10 years.
- Primary schools
Show data table
| Year | Primary schools |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 878 |
| 2016 | 867 |
| 2017 | 872 |
| 2018 | 871 |
| 2019 | 853 |
| 2020 | 857 |
| 2021 | 854 |
| 2022 | 806 |
| 2023 | 796 |
| 2024 | 820 |
| 2025 | 776 |
Which schools in Cairnlea are filling and which are emptying. A school that covers Prep to Year 12 is counted once, in its own line — its primary-age students are not in the primary schools line.
- Years 1–6
- Prep & ungradedTwo groups that sit outside the numbered year levels: Prep — the first year of school, which the national data does not number — and ungraded students at specialist schools, who are not placed in a year level at all.
A suburb with a specialist school will have a large line here.
Show data table
| Year | Years 1–6 | Prep & ungraded | All students |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 743 | 135 | 878 |
| 2016 | 732 | 135 | 867 |
| 2017 | 758 | 114 | 872 |
| 2018 | 738 | 133 | 871 |
| 2019 | 719 | 134 | 853 |
| 2020 | 724 | 133 | 857 |
| 2021 | 725 | 129 | 854 |
| 2022 | 717 | 89 | 806 |
| 2023 | 691 | 105 | 796 |
| 2024 | 697 | 123 | 820 |
| 2025 | 674 | 102 | 776 |
This counts children by the year they are in, not by the kind of school they attend — so a Prep-to-12 college contributes to every line. The three add up to every student in the suburb.
2025 · ACARA
The school in Cairnlea
Ordered by size, not by results — 1 government, 0 Catholic and 0 independent. Schools with more than one campus are counted once.
What these columns mean
- Type
- Prep-to-12 is one school a child can start and finish at without changing schools. Specialist schools also appear as Prep-to-12.
- 5 yr
- Change in enrolments against five years ago, not against last year. Enrolments move slowly, so a single year is mostly noise.
| School | Sector | Type | Students | 5 yr | 10 yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairnlea Park Primary School | Government | Primary | 776 | −9.5% | −11.6% |
Government zoning
Which catchments cover Cairnlea
7 government catchments cover Cairnlea — 2 secondary and 5 primary — so which one applies depends on the address, not the suburb.
| CatchmentThe area around a government school where living there guarantees your child a place. Boundaries follow streets, not suburb lines, so an address near the edge of a suburb may be zoned elsewhere. They are redrawn each year. | Level |
|---|---|
| St Albans Secondary College | Secondary |
| Victoria University Secondary College | Secondary |
| Albanvale Primary School | Primary |
| Cairnlea Park Primary School | Primary |
| Deer Park North Primary School | Primary |
| Deer Park West Primary School | Primary |
| University Park Primary School | Primary |
The read
What living here is actually like
Cairnlea is a suburb with a population of 10,043, where the median age is 36, slightly younger than the Victorian average of 38. The community is diverse, with 45.3% of residents born in Australia and a significant Vietnamese community making up 21% of the population. Family households are prevalent, comprising 87.2% of all households, with a high percentage of couples with children at 57.3%. The suburb has a strong owner-occupier presence, with 32.8% of homes owned outright and 49.2% owned with a mortgage.
Buyer fit
Who this suburb suits
One score per buyer type, out of 100, built from the demographic, housing and commute profile. Strongest first.
Buyer-fit score
Cairnlea · 0–100
Show data table
| Buyer type | Score |
|---|---|
| Families | 85 |
| Professionals | 70 |
| Retirees | 65 |
| First home buyers | 60 |
| Investors | 55 |
Why families score highest
The signals doing the work
- High percentage of family households - 87.2%
- Large proportion of couples with children - 57.3%
- Above average number of bedrooms per dwelling - 3.7
- Strong community feel with diverse cultural backgrounds
Against the state
How Cairnlea differs from Victoria
Every bar is this suburb. The vertical tick is the Victorian figure — the gap between them is the story.
Housing & movement
What’s built here, and how people leave in the morning
Dwelling mix
Share of occupied private dwellings
Show data table
| Dwelling type | Share |
|---|---|
| Apartments | 3.8% |
| Separate houses | 88.3% |
| Townhouses | 7.5% |
How people get to work
Method of travel, 2021 Census
Show data table
| Method | Share |
|---|---|
| Worked from home | 19% |
| Drove a car | 57.9% |
| Public transport | 4.6% |
| Car passenger | 5.1% |
Costs 2021 Census
Census figures, collected in 2021. Rents and repayments have moved since — for what property is selling for now, see .
Top occupations
Share of the employed workforce
Key highlights
- Above average household income - $2,062 weekly (vs VIC $1,759)
- High rate of family households - 87.2%
- Diverse cultural community with 21% Vietnamese-born residents
- Predominantly separate houses - 88.3% (vs VIC 73.4%)
- High percentage of residents with no health conditions - 68.1% (vs VIC 61%)
Things to be aware of
- Unemployment rate higher than VIC average - 6.6% (vs 5.0%)
- Lower percentage of residents with bachelor degrees - 23.0% (vs VIC 29.2%)
- Low public transport usage - 4.6%
- Higher mortgage costs - $1,883 monthly
- Limited rental market - 15.0% rented properties (vs VIC 28.5%)
Coming soon to this page
Where the richer profile lands
Schools & catchments
Zoned primary and secondary, NAPLAN bands, distances.
Transport & access
Stations, tram routes, drive time to the CBD, walkability.
Development activity
Permits approved, projects underway, zoning changes.
Want to dig into one address in Cairnlea?
A suburb page gets you this far. For a specific block you get what homes of that size sell for here, the schools that address is zoned to, any subdivisions proposed within 500 m, plus lot dimensions, easements, planning overlays and true sun aspect — free, no account.
X-Ray an address →Data sources
Demographic figures from the Census of Population and Housing © Australian Bureau of Statistics, used under Creative Commons Attribution.
Cadastral and boundary data contains information © State of Victoria (Vicmap), licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Narrative summaries are AI-generated from the underlying data and may contain errors.
School details, enrolments and senior secondary results from the National Schools Data Collection © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
School catchment boundaries contain information © State of Victoria (Department of Education), licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Base map © Mapbox © OpenStreetMap. Improve this map at openstreetmap.org/fixthemap.
Informational only — not financial, legal or planning advice. Verify zoning, overlays and catchments with the relevant council before relying on them. Data vintage: 2021 Census.