Caves Beach (NSW 2281): property prices, streets & suburb profile

Lake Macquarie LGA · Latest published data July 2026 · Page updated August 2026 · Public government records

Caves Beach · NSW 2281 · median house price (24 months)
$1,341,000+133.3%
vs 10 years ago (repeat-sales index, all dwellings)
Caves Beach has about 2,119 dwellings on record, with 125 house and 17 unit sales recorded in the last two years across 63 streets.
Median house price
$1,341,000
125 sales, 24 months
Median unit price
$1,130,000
17 strata sales, 24 months
Median rent, 3-br house
$725/wk
100 bonds, 12 months
Gross rental yield
2.8%
3-br postcode rent vs house median
How tightly held
1 in 30
homes on record trades each year
Nearest station
Fassifern Railway Station
Train, 14.0 km away

Caves Beach house and unit prices

The median Caves Beach house sold for $1,341,000 across the last 24 months; constant-quality growth is +133.3% over 10 years and +47.0% over 5 years.

Property type
1Y
3Y
5Y
10Y
Houses
-3.4%
+9.5%
+26.4%
+105.1%

Change in 12-month median sale prices to July 2026 vs the same window 1, 3, 5 and 10 years earlier · NSW Valuer General records

Median house price · 12 months to July 2026
Caves Beach
$1,333,000
Lake Macquarie LGA
$1,000,000
NSW
$1,101,088
Houses (quarterly median)
Units (yearly median)
501k815k1.13M1.44M1.76M20172019202120232025
View as table
PeriodHouses (quarterly median)Units (yearly median)
July 2015$625,000
Oct 2015$652,500
2016$658,500$560,000
Apr 2016$610,000
July 2016$705,000
Oct 2016$723,750
2017$825,000$527,000
Apr 2017$835,000
July 2017$675,000
Oct 2017$800,000
2018$842,750$635,000
Apr 2018$820,000
July 2018$847,000
Oct 2018$870,000
2019$720,000$740,000
Apr 2019$695,000
July 2019$890,000
Oct 2019$850,000
2020$937,500$714,000
Apr 2020$915,000
July 2020$882,500
Oct 2020$1,060,000
2021$1,022,500$850,000
Apr 2021$1,200,000
July 2021$1,100,000
Oct 2021$1,600,000
2022$1,300,000$1,200,000
Apr 2022$1,062,500
July 2022$1,260,000
Oct 2022$1,152,500
2023$1,350,000$1,100,000
Apr 2023$1,192,500
July 2023$1,165,000
Oct 2023$1,400,000
2024$1,390,000$1,022,500
Apr 2024$1,190,000
July 2024$1,320,000
Oct 2024$1,175,000
2025$1,380,000$1,002,500
Apr 2025$1,500,000
July 2025$1,367,000
Oct 2025$1,300,000
2026$1,675,000
Apr 2026$1,287,500
  • The headline growth figure uses a repeat-sales index of all dwellings (the same homes resold), which removes mix-of-what-sold noise; the tiles compare 12-month medians per dwelling type, so the two can differ, and differ widely where what sold changed.
  • Unit medians are yearly because strata volumes are low; treat them as indicative.
  • Quarters with fewer than three house sales are left off the chart; one sale does not make a market median.

Caves Beach street by street

Across the 19 Caves Beach streets that qualify for the ranking, five-year medians run from $760,000 on Civic Avenue to $1,900,000 on Brigantine Place.

Most expensive street (houses)

Brigantine Place

$1,900,000 five-year median · 5 sales

Most affordable street (houses)

Civic Avenue

$760,000 five-year median · 6 sales

House sales over the last five years, by price
197 sales
  • under $1.00M
  • $1.00M to $1.50M
  • $1.50M and above

Each dot is one house sale over the last five years, 197 in all, placed at the address that sold and shaded by what it fetched. Prices are as paid, with part shares and multi-property dealings left out.

View as table
Street medians, five years of house sales
StreetMedianSales (5 years)
Brigantine Place$1.90M5
Bligh Avenue$1.68M6
Copper Valley Close$1.58M5
Ocean View Parade$1.52M7
Caves Beach Road$1.40M26
Sapphire Close$1.40M5
Seaspray Close$1.38M5
Silky Oak Drive$1.35M15
Oceanside Drive$1.34M6
Park Avenue$1.33M21
Scenic Drive$1.30M5
Macquarie Grove$1.30M30
Beachside Drive$1.23M9
Caldwell Street$1.20M9
Pacific Street$1.10M11
Alexander Avenue$1.05M10
Farrington Close$1.00M6
Tasman Court$802k14
Civic Avenue$760k6
Caves Beach streets with a published median · last 10 years of sales
The Esplanade$2.30M7
Seacliff Place$2.17M6
Spoon Rocks Road$2.00M5
Mawson Close$1.73M6$1.18M16
Clipper Close$1.59M52
Brigantine Place$1.58M11
Bligh Avenue$1.40M9
Ocean View Parade$1.40M18
Copper Valley Close$1.30M9
Caves Beach Road$1.28M47$740k71
Oceanside Drive$1.26M84
Silky Oak Drive$1.25M27
Village Grove$1.25M5
Park Avenue$1.20M33
Palm Tree Crescent$1.15M7
Barellan Street$1.14M8
Seaspray Close$1.13M104
Cinnabar Close$1.11M8
Phillip Street$1.10M5
Driftwood Close$1.07M7
Sapphire Close$1.07M14
Caldwell Street$1.06M13
Middle Street$1.06M7
Scenic Drive$1.03M15
Ebbtide Avenue$1.00M9
  • A street needs at least 5 sales of a type in 10 years to get a median, so streets quieter than that are left out entirely.
  • Sales that moved several properties on one dealing are left out, because the record repeats that dealing's whole price against every property in it.
  • The highlight cards rank on house sales only, using each street's last-5-years median (at least 5 sales in that window), so unit-heavy streets are not mislabelled as cheap and the figures reflect prices a buyer could pay now; the table shows the full 10-year view.
  • A street is left out of the ranking when its five-year median sits below three-fifths of its own 10-year median, or far below the suburb's median (a bar set higher for streets with no older sales of their own to stand behind them). Those windows are usually land sold before the houses went up, or a part share of a home priced as though it were the whole. Those streets stay in the table with their 10-year median.
  • Prices are as-paid and not inflation-adjusted.

What buyers paid in Caves Beach

Half of the 125 house sales in the last 24 months landed between $1,110,000 and $1,720,000.

08162331Median $1.34M$750k$1.25M$1.75M$2.25M$2.50M
Middle 50% of sales: $1.11M – $1.72M
Median $1.34M
112 sales total
  • House sales only, 24 months. The unit median is quoted separately.
  • Chart covers $750,000 to $2,500,000: 13 of the 125 house sales fall outside it (the cheapest and dearest few) and are left out so a handful of outliers cannot distort the shape.

Rent in Caves Beach by bedrooms

A 3-bedroom house rents for a median $725/wk.

Median weekly rent · houses
2-bedroom
$600/wk
3-bedroom
$725/wk
4-bedroom
$900/wk
5-bedroom
$1,060/wk
Median weekly rent · units
1-bedroom
$400/wk
2-bedroom
$550/wk
  • From NSW rental bond lodgements for postcode 2281 (covers neighbouring suburbs too), 12 months to July 2026.
  • Bands with fewer than 10 bonds are hidden.
  • Biggest 12-month move: 2-bedroom houses +9.1% year on year.

Who lives in Caves Beach

Caves Beach has a median age of 49 and a median household income of $1,628 a week, and 79.3% of homes are owner-occupied.

Population (Caves Beach)
4,016
Median age (Caves Beach)
49 years
Median household income (Caves Beach)
$1,628/wk
People per square kilometre
1,651
Average taxable income (postcode, 2023)
$73,348
Average household size (SA2)
2.4
Median mortgage repayment (SA2)
$2,080/month
Australian-born (postcode)
85.9%
SEIFA advantage decile (Caves Beach)
7 of 10
Rooftop solar installs, 12 months (postcode)
198
How Caves Beach homes are held
Owned outright
49.1% · 735
Owned with a mortgage
30.2% · 452
Rented
17.9% · 268
Caves Beach homes by bedroom count
1 bedroom or studio
1.7% · 25
2 bedrooms
11.2% · 166
3 bedrooms
37.1% · 549
4 bedrooms
38.5% · 569
5 or more
11.5% · 170
ABS SEIFA 2021 deciles · 10 of 10 = most advantaged nationally
Advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD)from income, education, occupation and housing
7 of 10
Relative disadvantage (IRSD)from low income, low education and unskilled occupations
6 of 10
Economic resources (IER)from household income, wealth and housing costs
6 of 10
Education and occupation (IEO)from qualifications and skilled work
6 of 10
  • Figures labelled Caves Beach are for the suburb boundary itself (ABS 2021 Census). Anything labelled SA2 or postcode covers a wider area: SA2 "Swansea - Caves Beach" and postcode 2281 both extend beyond Caves Beach.
  • SEIFA decile 1 is the lowest tenth of Australian areas on that index and 10 the highest. The four indices measure different things and often disagree, which is why all four are shown: a suburb can rank high on education and occupation while ranking mid on economic resources.

Bushfire, flood and planning in Caves Beach

29.4% of Caves Beach properties sit in a mapped bushfire-prone area; no flood mapping is available in our dataset for this suburb.

Properties in a mapped bushfire-prone area
29.4%
Flood mapping
No flood mapping available in our dataset
Heritage-flagged properties
0
Land zoning of properties
R2 Low Density Residential (70%), R3 Medium Density Residential (24%), MU1 Mixed Use (2%)
  • Bushfire-prone land is the NSW RFS certified map; being inside it triggers extra building requirements, not a prediction of fire.
  • Absence of flood mapping in our dataset is NOT evidence a property cannot flood: always order a council s10.7 certificate before buying.

Schools serving Caves Beach

Most Caves Beach homes fall in the Caves Beach Public School intake zone.

Schools located in Caves Beach
Caves Beach Public SchoolGovernmentPrimary1,019
Swansea High SchoolGovernmentSecondary972
Public primary catchment (100% of homes)
Caves Beach Public School
Public primary catchment (0% of homes)
Swansea Public School
Public secondary catchment
Swansea High School
Median school percentile nationally · ICSEA score
Caves Beach · 2 schools
44th · 996
Lake Macquarie LGA
47th · 1000
Newcastle & Hunter
38th · 981
NSW
51st · 1009
Australia
51st · 1008
  • ICSEA is ACARA's socio-educational index (average 1000). It describes the family backgrounds of the students enrolled, NOT how well a school teaches: a lower ICSEA means a less advantaged intake, not a worse school.
  • Percentiles are ACARA's own national ranking, so the Australia bar is a published figure rather than our arithmetic. Each area shows the median of the mainstream schools sitting inside it; special schools are listed in the table but excluded from the medians.
  • Catchments are NSW Department of Education intake zones; always confirm an address with the school.

Crime and safety around Caves Beach

Break-ins, car theft and malicious damage run at 1,756 per 100,000 residents in postcode 2281, 16.9% above the NSW rate of 1,502.

Recorded incidents, Lake Macquarie LGA (12m)
15,356
of which assault (LGA)
1,926
of which theft (LGA)
4,898
Recorded incidents, postcode 2281 (12m)
1,016
Break-ins, car theft and malicious damage · incidents per 100,000 residents
Postcode 2281 (Caves Beach + neighbours)
1,756
Lake Macquarie LGA
1,631
Newcastle & Hunter
2,215
NSW
1,502
  • Counts are BOCSAR recorded incidents for January 2025 to December 2025 at LGA and postcode grain: both cover several suburbs, so they include neighbours of Caves Beach.
  • Rates divide incidents by resident population (ABS 2021 Census), so they are comparable between areas in a way raw counts are not. Every tier uses the same offences and the same 12 months for January 2025 to December 2025.
  • Two limits worth knowing: the rate counts residents only, so a postcode with a town centre, nightlife strip or shopping precinct carries crime generated by visitors against a small resident denominator and reads high; and the population is the 2021 Census, so a suburb that has grown fast since then reads high too.

Recent house sales in Caves Beach

The most recent house sales on record in Caves Beach are from 2026, 25 of them. Search a street to see what it has been fetching.

Bligh Avenue2026$3.25M
Caves Beach Road2026$2.50M
Macquarie Grove2026$1.92M
Macquarie Grove2026$1.81M
Copper Valley Close2026$1.80M
Silky Oak Drive2026$1.76M
Macquarie Grove2026$1.72M
Copper Valley Close2026$1.70M
Park Avenue2026$1.60M
Seaspray Close2026$1.60M
Caves Beach Road2026$1.58M
Civic Avenue2026$1.34M

One row per house sale on record for the last five years, by street and the year it sold. Sale prices are as paid. Part shares and multi-property dealings are excluded, and unit sales are not included here.

Suburbs near Caves Beach

Caves Beach's median house price of $1,341,000 is the 6th highest of the 93 Newcastle & Hunter suburbs we cover.

All Newcastle & Hunter suburb research

Caves Beach: common questions

What is the median house price in Caves Beach?
$1,341,000, based on 125 house sales over the 24 months to July 2026 (NSW Valuer General records).
What are the most and least expensive streets in Caves Beach?
Of the 19 Caves Beach streets that qualify for the five-year ranking, Brigantine Place has the highest house median at $1,900,000 (5 sales); Civic Avenue has the lowest at $760,000 (6 sales).
How much have Caves Beach property prices grown?
A repeat-sales index of Caves Beach dwellings has risen 133.3% over 10 years and moved +47.0% over 5 years.
What does it cost to rent in Caves Beach?
The median 3-bedroom house in postcode 2281 rents for $725/wk, from 100 bonds lodged in the last 12 months.
Which public schools serve Caves Beach?
Caves Beach Public School (primary, zoned for 100% of homes); Swansea Public School (primary, zoned for 0% of homes); Swansea High School (secondary).
Is Caves Beach affected by bushfire or flood risk?
29.4% of properties sit in the NSW RFS bushfire-prone land map. No flood mapping is available in our dataset for this suburb; that is not evidence properties cannot flood; check a council s10.7 certificate.
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Data sources

This page summarises public government datasets for general information. It is not financial, legal or property advice, figures can contain source errors, and postcode or SA2 statistics cover a wider area than the suburb itself. Verify anything material independently before acting on it.