CarltonVIC · suburb profile
VIC 3053 · Melbourne
Daily life in Carlton is dynamic, with a strong emphasis on public transport and walking, as only 14.4% of residents drive to work. The suburb has a high work-from-home rate of 35.8%, which is above the Victorian average of 25.7%. The community is diverse, with a significant portion of the population born overseas, contributing to a multicultural atmosphere.
Sales · 12 months to August 2026
What property sold for in Carlton
Units · Carlton is one of the more affordable places to buy a unit in Victoria: a median of $398,000 across 264 sales, cheaper than 94% of the Victorian suburbs we cover.
This is a varied market — the middle half of units spanned $226,000 to $569,000, so the median alone will not tell a buyer much.
Houses
$1.35m
median of 40 sales
20.3% down on the previous twelve months.
Dearer than 83% of the 426 suburbs we cover in Victoria.
Half sold between $1.15m and $1.81m.
Last sold within the past month
Units
$398k
median of 264 sales
22.3% up on the previous twelve months.
Cheaper than 94% of the 162 suburbs we cover in Victoria.
Half sold between $226k and $569k.
Last sold within the past two weeks
Townhouses
$950k
median of 7 sales
Too few sales to be reliable — treat as a rough guide
Half sold between $767k and $1.23m.
Last sold within the past two weeks
311 sales on record · data to 30 August 2026
Since 2022
How prices have moved
Units · Since 2022, units have eased from $435,000 to $398,000 — 8.5% lower.
- Houses
- Units
- Townhouses
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 | Townhouses |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 · part year | $1.20m | $412k | $1.00m |
| 2025 · part year | $1.56m | $353k | $1.18m |
| 2024 | $1.39m | $409k | |
| 2023 | $1.50m | $395k | |
| 2022 | $1.51m | $435k |
Quarter by quarter
| Quarter | Median | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q1 | $1.36m | 5 | -6.7%low confidence5 sales this quarter, 26 the quarter before. Under 30 either side, the movement is mostly which homes happened to sell rather than the market moving. |
| 2025 Q4 | $1.46m | 26 |
| Quarter | Median | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q2 | $370k | 61 | -14% |
| 2026 Q1 | $430k | 66 | +19.4% |
| 2025 Q4 | $360k | 98 | +16.1% |
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 Carlton
Units · The step from 1 to 2 bedrooms is the expensive one in Carlton, worth about $298,000.
Houses
| Bedrooms | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $1.20m | 17 · few |
| 3 | $1.72m | 14 · few |
| 4 | $1.72m | 7 · few |
Units
| Bedrooms | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $248k | 136 |
| 2 | $546k | 106 |
| 3 | $1.02m | 17 · 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.
2 schools · 2025 figures
Who goes to school in Carlton
All schools · Carlton's 2 schools teach 549 students, up 25.6% in ten years — and 7 government catchments cross the suburb.
Schools here
2
2 primary
Students, all schools
549
2025 · +25.6% 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?”
−3.3%
549 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.
−1.7%
470 · 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 Carlton have grown 25.6% over 10 years.
- Primary schools
Show data table
| Year | Primary schools |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 437 |
| 2016 | 465 |
| 2017 | 472 |
| 2018 | 507 |
| 2019 | 571 |
| 2020 | 568 |
| 2021 | 502 |
| 2022 | 542 |
| 2023 | 585 |
| 2024 | 577 |
| 2025 | 549 |
Which schools in Carlton 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 | 340 | 97 | 437 |
| 2016 | 384 | 81 | 465 |
| 2017 | 388 | 84 | 472 |
| 2018 | 410 | 97 | 507 |
| 2019 | 482 | 89 | 571 |
| 2020 | 478 | 90 | 568 |
| 2021 | 422 | 80 | 502 |
| 2022 | 453 | 89 | 542 |
| 2023 | 496 | 89 | 585 |
| 2024 | 492 | 85 | 577 |
| 2025 | 470 | 79 | 549 |
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
All 2 schools in Carlton
Ordered by size, not by results — 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton Gardens Primary School | Government | Primary | 435 | −3.1% | +27.9% |
| Carlton Primary School | Government | Primary | 114 | −4.2% | +17.5% |
Government zoning
Which catchments cover Carlton
7 government catchments cover Carlton — 4 secondary and 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Collingwood College | Secondary |
| Fitzroy High School | Secondary |
| Princes Hill Secondary College | Secondary |
| University High School | Secondary |
| Carlton Gardens Primary School | Primary |
| Carlton North Primary School | Primary |
| Carlton Primary School | Primary |
The read
What living here is actually like
Carlton is a vibrant suburb with a total population of 16,050, characterized by a youthful median age of 27 years, significantly lower than the Victorian average of 38 years. The gender distribution is fairly balanced with 49% males and 51% females. The suburb is predominantly renter-heavy, with 72.3% of the population renting their homes, compared to the Victorian average of 28.5%. The area has a high percentage of apartments, accounting for 80.7% of the housing stock, while separate houses are rare at 1.3%.
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
Carlton · 0–100
Show data table
| Buyer type | Score |
|---|---|
| Professionals | 85 |
| Investors | 80 |
| First home buyers | 60 |
| Families | 55 |
| Retirees | 45 |
Why professionals score highest
The signals doing the work
- High percentage of professionals at 41.3%
- Strong work-from-home culture at 35.8%
- Proximity to higher education institutions with 6.3% employed in the sector
- Vibrant cultural diversity with 60.9% born overseas
Against the state
How Carlton 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 | 80.7% |
| Separate houses | 1.3% |
| Townhouses | 17.1% |
How people get to work
Method of travel, 2021 Census
Show data table
| Method | Share |
|---|---|
| Worked from home | 35.8% |
| Drove a car | 14.4% |
| Public transport | 16.2% |
| Walked only | 13.3% |
| Car passenger | 16.4% |
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
- Highly educated population - 52.7% hold bachelor degrees or higher (vs VIC 29.2%)
- Young median age of 27 years (vs VIC 38 years)
- High percentage of renters - 72.3% (vs VIC 28.5%)
- Significant work-from-home culture - 35.8% (vs VIC 25.7%)
- Diverse community with 39.1% born in Australia
Things to be aware of
- Higher unemployment rate at 11.4% (vs VIC 5.0%)
- Below average median household income of $1,292 weekly (vs VIC $1,759)
- Predominantly apartment living with limited separate houses
- High percentage of single-person households at 45.3%
- Significant percentage of the population with mental health conditions at 10.3%
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 Carlton?
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.