CowesVIC · suburb profile
VIC 3922 · Bass Coast
Daily life in Cowes is likely to be relaxed, with a significant portion of the population working part-time (40.6%) and a notable 18% working from home. The suburb has a low public transport usage rate of 0.5%, indicating a reliance on cars for commuting, with 54.1% of residents driving to work. The community has a strong local feel, with 73.1% of residents born in Australia and 85.5% speaking only English at home.
Sales · 12 months to August 2026
What property sold for in Cowes
Houses · 148 houses sold in Cowes at a median of $700,000, well under the Victorian median of $885,000.
Most sales sit between $582,000 and $796,000, with the median in the middle.
Houses
$700k
median of 148 sales
Level with the previous twelve months.
Cheaper than 78% of the 426 suburbs we cover in Victoria.
Half sold between $582k and $796k.
Last sold within the past two weeks
Units
$456k
median of 14 sales
Too few sales to be reliable — treat as a rough guide
Half sold between $389k and $531k.
Last sold within the past two weeks
Land
$383k
median of 15 sales
Too few sales to be reliable — treat as a rough guide
Half sold between $331k and $408k.
Last sold one to two months ago
177 sales on record · data to 30 August 2026
Since 2022
How prices have moved
Houses · Since 2022, houses have eased from $875,000 to $700,000 — 20% lower.
- Houses
- Units
- Townhouses
- 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 | Townhouses | Land |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 · part year | $700k | $432k | $331k | |
| 2025 · part year | $695k | $459k | $601k | $400k |
| 2024 | $801k | |||
| 2023 | $800k | $446k | ||
| 2022 | $875k | $588k |
Quarter by quarter
| Quarter | Median | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q2 | $713k | 31 | +1.1% |
| 2026 Q1 | $705k | 51 | +4% |
| 2025 Q4 | $678k | 42 | -2.2% |
| Quarter | Median | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Q4 | $459k | 5 |
| Quarter | Median | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q1 | $320k | 5 | -16.9%low confidence5 sales this quarter, 9 the quarter before. Under 30 either side, the movement is mostly which homes happened to sell rather than the market moving. |
| 2025 Q4 | $385k | 9 |
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 Cowes
Houses · 3-bedroom houses, the most common sale here, run about $640,000; moving from 3 to 4 bedrooms adds roughly $140,000.
Houses
| Bedrooms | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $535k | 12 · few |
| 3 | $640k | 75 |
| 4 | $780k | 51 |
| 5 | $900k | 7 · few |
Units
| Bedrooms | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $457k | 11 · 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 Cowes
All schools · Cowes' 2 schools teach 633 students, up 19.7% in ten years — and 2 government catchments cross the suburb.
Schools here
2
2 primary
Students, all schools
633
2025 · +19.7% 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?”
+2.9%
633 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.
+8.2%
567 · 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 Cowes have grown 19.7% over 10 years.
- Primary schools
Show data table
| Year | Primary schools |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 529 |
| 2016 | 547 |
| 2017 | 585 |
| 2018 | 593 |
| 2019 | 612 |
| 2020 | 615 |
| 2021 | 653 |
| 2022 | 619 |
| 2023 | 641 |
| 2024 | 654 |
| 2025 | 633 |
Which schools in Cowes 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 | 451 | 78 | 529 |
| 2016 | 468 | 79 | 547 |
| 2017 | 505 | 80 | 585 |
| 2018 | 526 | 67 | 593 |
| 2019 | 533 | 79 | 612 |
| 2020 | 524 | 91 | 615 |
| 2021 | 554 | 99 | 653 |
| 2022 | 529 | 90 | 619 |
| 2023 | 562 | 79 | 641 |
| 2024 | 558 | 96 | 654 |
| 2025 | 567 | 66 | 633 |
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 Cowes
Ordered by size, not by results — 1 government, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cowes Primary School | Government | Primary | 523 | −3.9% | −1.1% |
| Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School | Catholic | Primary | 110 | +54.9% | — |
Government zoning
Which catchments cover Cowes
2 government catchments cover Cowes — 1 secondary and 1 primary — so which one applies depends on the address, not the suburb. The secondary catchment is Bass Coast College.
| 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 |
|---|---|
| Bass Coast College | Secondary |
| Cowes Primary School | Primary |
The read
What living here is actually like
Cowes is a coastal suburb with a total population of 6,595, characterized by a median age of 55, which is significantly higher than the Victorian average of 38. The suburb has a higher proportion of females (53%) compared to males (47%). The community is predominantly composed of couples without children, accounting for 55.9% of families, and a notable portion of single-person households at 34.7%. The area is primarily residential, with 83.4% of dwellings being separate houses, and a significant portion of homes owned outright (46.3%).
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
Cowes · 0–100
Show data table
| Buyer type | Score |
|---|---|
| Retirees | 85 |
| Investors | 60 |
| Families | 60 |
| Professionals | 55 |
| First home buyers | 50 |
Why retirees score highest
The signals doing the work
- High median age of 55
- 46.3% of homes owned outright
- Low unemployment rate of 4.4%
- Relaxed coastal lifestyle
Against the state
How Cowes 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 | 4% |
| Separate houses | 83.4% |
| Townhouses | 11.8% |
How people get to work
Method of travel, 2021 Census
Show data table
| Method | Share |
|---|---|
| Worked from home | 18% |
| Drove a car | 54.1% |
| Public transport | 0.5% |
| Walked only | 4.8% |
| Car passenger | 4.5% |
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
- High median age of 55, indicating a mature community
- Significant owner-occupied housing with 46.3% owned outright
- Low unemployment rate of 4.4% compared to the Victorian average of 5.0%
- High percentage of separate houses at 83.4% (vs VIC 73.4%)
- 18% of residents work from home, slightly below the VIC average of 25.7%
Things to be aware of
- Below average educational attainment with 15.6% holding a bachelor's degree or higher (vs VIC 29.2%)
- Low median household income of $1,026 per week compared to the VIC average of $1,759
- Limited public transport options with only 0.5% using it for commuting
- Higher percentage of low-income households at 28.0%
- Lower labour force participation rate at 43.8%
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 Cowes?
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.