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Balmain
Ranked #12 of 422 Sydney suburbs for parks. Every number below comes from open data — official crime statistics, ABS census and GPS activity traces — not opinion.
Balmain suburb profile: score breakdown
Balmain crime rate, rent, prices and other numbers
| Population | 10,454 |
| Area | 1.54 km² |
| Postcode | 2041 |
| Median household income | $3,039/wk |
| Median rent | $625/wk |
| Median house price (Jan–Mar 2026) | $2,793,000 (36 sales this quarter; down 19.3% YoY, down 8.7% QoQ; postcode 2041, not suburb-level) |
| Median unit price (Jan–Mar 2026) | $1,730,000 (low sales volume; up 22.7% YoY, up 24.5% QoQ; postcode 2041, not suburb-level) |
| Crime rate | 79.8 incidents per 1,000 people — 61% of offences are against property, 39% against the person |
| Parks | 30 (0.93 ha per 1,000 people) |
| Schools (government data) | 1 — 1 primary, 0 secondary; nearest primary 0.31 km, secondary 1.03 km |
| Families score | 47/100 (safety 30 · schools 25 · parks per 1,000 15 · kinders 10 · price-for-size 10 · transit 10) |
| Within 400m of a park | 99.8% of the suburb |
| Cafés | 13 |
| Gyms & sport venues | 36 |
| Public transport stops | 36 (33 bus stops, 3 ferry wharfs) |
| Nearest parkrun | Pirrama parkrun (1.29 km) |
| Schools nearby (OSM, not catchment zoning) | 2 schools in the suburb — nearest is Balmain Public School (0.26 km) |
Sale prices: NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, January - March 2026 quarter — © State of New South Wales (Department of Communities and Justice), Rent and Sales Report, CC BY 4.0; suburb-to-postcode mapping © GeoNames.org, CC BY 4.0. NSW publishes no free suburb-level sale medians, so this is the median for the suburb's POSTCODE (non-strata sales = houses, strata = units), which can span several suburbs. Low-volume figures rest on 30 or fewer sales in the quarter; postcodes with 10 or fewer sales are withheld by DCJ.
Who lives in Balmain
Source: ABS Census 2021; sale prices NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, January - March 2026 quarter. We do not hold a suburb-level renter/owner split, families-with-children rate, born-overseas rate or dwelling-type breakdown for Balmain — the fields above are everything the census data behind this site currently carries.
Common questions about Balmain
What is the postcode for Balmain?
The postcode for Balmain, Sydney is 2041.
Is Balmain a good suburb?
There is no single invented "overall" score here -- Balmain is measured on 10 separate categories rather than blended into one number. Its strongest is parks, ranking #12 of 422 Sydney suburbs, and it ranks in the top half of Sydney for 9 of the 10 categories measured here. The full breakdown is above.
Is Balmain safe?
It is on the less safe side of Sydney, scoring 16/100 for safety and ranking #354 of 422 suburbs. Recorded offences run at 80 per 1,000 residents. That score is recorded offences per 1,000 residents from official crime statistics, as a percentile against every other suburb in the city.
Is Balmain good for families?
Mixed, and the weak spot is safety. Here are the family measures we can compute — safety 16/100, parks 95/100 and green space 60/100, with a median age of 42. It has 1 school in the suburb, with the nearest primary 0.3 km from its centre. School counts and distances feed the families score; catchment zoning and school results do not (we cannot publish those) — see our Sydney families ranking for the full method.
Is Balmain expensive to live in?
The median house sale price was $2,793,000 in Jan–Mar 2026 (NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, postcode-level), down 19.3% YoY, down 8.7% QoQ. Median rent is $625 a week, and household income ranks #70 of 422 in Sydney. Against what the suburb offers, it scores 81/100 for value.
Does Balmain have good public transport?
It scores 65/100 for transit, #150 of 422 in Sydney. That measures train, tram and bus access within the suburb boundary, weighted by mode.
Are there parks in Balmain?
100% of the suburb is within walking distance of a park, at 0.9 hectares per 1,000 residents — 60/100 for green space.
Is Balmain good for running?
The nearest parkrun is Pirrama parkrun, 1.3 km away, and GPS activity traces put it at 58/100 for how much walking, running and riding actually happens there.
Nearby suburbs
Scores are percentiles against every other suburb in Sydney: 100 is the
best in the city, 50 is mid-table. Updated October 2026 (last updated 2026-10-12). Sources: open GPS activity traces,
official crime statistics, ABS census, OpenStreetMap.
About this data: every number on this page is computed from public sources — it is not an
opinion or a sponsored placement. See how we rank suburbs
for the full method.
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