Calen is in Mackay LGA, QLD, postcode 4798, with population 427.
The page has enough signal to be useful, but the story is mixed rather than decisive. Use compare mode to pressure-test it against stronger nearby options, then use the calculator if it still makes the shortlist.
Entry price sits in the lower-cost range for a first-pass screen.
Gross yield looks low for an income-first use case. Small local population makes the signal set more fragile.
Indicative cashflow is interest-only and excludes tax — use the calculator for a full projection.
Owners with a mortgage repay a median of $1,300/mo, while renters pay about $1,083/mo — owning runs $217/mo higher on these medians.
Calen (postcode 4798) is a sparsely populated locality in Queensland within the Mackay local government area. With a population of 427, the suburb has an established family demographic with a median age of 43. Households earn a median income of $74K per year, with an average household size of 2.5 people. Recent annual estimates show population movement staying broadly stable across the broader catchment, with population growth running at +0.9% year-on-year at the LGA level. QLD employment has moved +0.9% year-on-year in the official Jobs and Skills Australia NERO series, which provides the broader jobs backdrop for this suburb. QLD also had 32 Commonwealth-backed major projects under construction, 12 underway, and 50 in planning as at 2 October 2024, which is useful as a broader delivery backdrop rather than a suburb-specific project count. The most common occupations are machinery operators & drivers, labourers, technicians & trades. Employment in the area leans toward agriculture and education. The top ancestries reported are English, Australian, Aboriginal Australian.
Calen has a median house price of $635,000, holding roughly steady year-on-year. The median weekly rent is $250 (Census 2021). This gives a gross rental yield of approximately 2.0%. The median monthly mortgage repayment is $1,300.
Calen is served by 1 school, including 1 combined. The average ICSEA score is 926, which is below the national average of 1,000. The crime rate in the Mackay LGA is moderate at 6,570 incidents per 100,000 population.
Looking at the investment signals, The gross rental yield works out to roughly 2.0%, which reads as low yield. Property prices sit below the state median ($635K/$1.1M), which can point to relative value. The price-to-income ratio of 8.6x is considered moderate. House prices have moved +0.0% year-on-year. Population growth of +0.9% year-on-year points to stable demand fundamentals. Building approvals have changed +0% year-on-year, indicating steady development activity.
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Calen carries enough direct local evidence for a first-pass decision.
QuickProperty mixes release files, Census baselines, and matched local services on this page. Read the status panel before treating every metric as equally fresh.
QVAS residential dwelling sales aggregated to SA2 and mapped to suburb pages
This gives you directional coverage, but it is weaker than a current rent release.
Schools, transport, and hospitals are useful as presence signals, but they still have different source cadences.
Calen is in the Mackay Local Government Area, QLD, postcode 4798. Council-level context for Mackay LGA (suburb mix, population, rent, and price coverage) is available on the QuickProperty LGA page.
The current median house price in Calen, QLD is $635K, based on the latest available sales data from state Valuers General offices and ABS Data by Region.
The median weekly rent in Calen is $250/wk, based on ABS Census 2021 rent fallback.
QuickProperty's investment signals for Calen show: Low Yield, Below Median, Moderate. These are computed from price, rent, income, and population data — not an opaque score.
Property prices come from state Valuers General offices and ABS Data by Region. Demographics are from ABS Census 2021. School ICSEA scores are from ACARA. Crime statistics are from state police agencies. Transport data is sourced from GTFS feeds.
Property prices update quarterly. RBA macro indicators update with each deploy. Demographics are from Census 2021. School ICSEA scores are from ACARA 2025.