Dungog is a historic country town on the Williams River in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, sitting approximately 76 kilometres north of Newcastle and governed by Dungog Shire Council. Its SEIFA IRSAD score of 944 sits below the national mean of 1000, placing it in decile 4 of 10 nationally and at the 32nd percentile within New South Wales. That reading reflects a community whose relative socioeconomic resources, including income, education, and occupational mix, are meaningfully below the state median. Investors should treat this as a structural context signal, not a verdict on any individual property.
ABS 2021 IRSAD release. Score 944 (national mean = 1000).
A SEIFA IRSAD score of 944 tells PropertyRanker that Dungog sits in the lower-middle band of socioeconomic advantage nationally. The score feeds directly into three of the model's twelve criteria: economic_strength, hazard_risk, and entry_point_risk. On economic_strength, a below-mean reading suggests the local income and employment base is thinner than in higher-decile markets, which can constrain both rental demand depth and the pace of capital appreciation during downturns. On entry_point_risk, a decile 4 reading can indicate that median prices are more accessible, but it also signals that the buyer pool drawing on local incomes is narrower, which matters for resale liquidity. On hazard_risk, SEIFA is used as a proxy for community resilience capacity; lower-decile areas tend to have less fiscal buffer when infrastructure or natural hazard events occur, and Dungog Shire has a documented history of flood events along the Williams River catchment that investors should investigate independently.
The town's economic base is anchored in agriculture and tourism, with rail access to Newcastle providing some commuter optionality. The shire's primary industries and relatively small population mean the rental market is thin by metropolitan standards. For strategy matching, the gross-yield profile of a regional town at this price point may align with PropertyRanker's High Yield or Regional strategy anchors (around 6 to 7 percent gross yield), but that alignment depends entirely on the specific asking price and achievable rent of the listing under review, not on the postcode SEIFA reading alone. A strong SEIFA score does not make a suburb a buy, and a weak one does not make it a pass; a well-priced property with sound fundamentals can score well inside a decile 4 postcode frame.
Dungog (NSW 2420) recorded a median house sale price of $653,000 as at February 2026, reflecting 10.3% annual growth, based on CoreLogic data published via propertyvalue.com.au and yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au. There were 44 house sales over the past 12 months, with an average vendor discount of -3.6% and an average of 51 days on market. PropRadar's July 2026 data puts the median slightly higher at $675,000 with +17.4% annual growth, while the vacancy rate sits at 2.4%, indicating a broadly balanced rental market.
Vacancy at 2.4% is broadly balanced per PropRadar, days on market at 51 days is moderate, and vendor discounting at -3.6% is present but not extreme, together pointing to a steady market with positive price momentum.
Sources: Dungog NSW 2420 Suburb Profile - propertyvalue.com.au (2026-02-01); Dungog NSW 2420 Suburb Profile & Property Report - yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au (2026-02-01); Dungog NSW 2420 - PropRadar (2026-07-14); Dungog Shire Council NSW Property Market & House Prices 2026 - htag.com.au (2026-01-01) · Refreshed 7 Sep 2026
PropertyRanker scores any Australian property against 12 criteria across three pillars: Growth, Cashflow, and Risk. SEIFA is a primary signal for economic strength and a supporting one for entry-price risk. It also informs the crime side of hazard risk, though physical overlays like flood, bushfire and coastal exposure, and recorded crime data where available, take priority there. The decile of 4 shown above gives a listing in Dungog a broadly mid-band starting line on economic strength and entry-price risk relative to the national median postcode.
On top of that, PropertyRanker chooses one of four strategies (Balanced, Growth, Yield, Regional) and applies a per-strategy yield anchor. The anchors are 3.5% for Growth, 5% for Balanced, 6% for Yield, and 7% for Regional. A mid-band postcode does not favour one strategy outright; Balanced (5% anchor) is the common fit, with Yield (6%) reachable where a specific listing rent-to-price ratio supports it.
Read the scoring guide for the full criteria list and how the verdict thresholds work.
Before drawing any investment conclusion from this SEIFA reading, verify the following at the listing level. First, check current SQM Research vacancy rates for postcode 2420; thin rental markets can push vacancy above 3 percent, which materially changes yield assumptions. Second, if the property is strata or community title, obtain the body corporate financials and confirm the sinking fund is adequately funded. Third, commission a flood and overlay search specific to the lot; Dungog Shire has flood-affected land along the Williams River and its tributaries, and a postcode-level SEIFA score cannot identify whether a specific parcel carries a flood planning level or other overlay constraint. Fourth, compare the asking price against recent comparable sales in the postcode to assess whether the entry point is genuinely below or above replacement value. Finally, run the specific listing through PropertyRanker to receive a composite score across all twelve criteria, including the signals that a postcode-level reading cannot see: current vacancy, body corporate health, flood and overlay status, and pricing against recent comparable sales.
A SEIFA IRSAD score of 944, sitting at the 32nd percentile within New South Wales and in decile 4 of 10 nationally, signals a community with below-average income, education, and occupational resources relative to the state median. PropertyRanker treats that as a structural context signal across three of its twelve criteria, not as a verdict on any individual listing. A well-priced property with sound fundamentals can still score competitively inside a decile 4 postcode frame; the SEIFA reading shapes the starting conditions, and the specific listing details determine the final score.
Given Dungog's regional price point and its agricultural and tourism-anchored economy, the gross-yield profile here tends to align more naturally with the High Yield strategy (anchored around 6 percent) or the Regional strategy (anchored around 7 percent) than with the Capital Growth or Balanced strategies. That alignment depends entirely on the asking price and achievable rent of the specific property under review, not on the postcode alone. Investors should score the individual listing on PropertyRanker to see which strategy anchor the live numbers actually support.
Flood risk is the most material hazard to verify independently. The township sits at the confluence of the Williams River and Myall Creek, and the April 2015 event produced catastrophic flooding that inundated around 80 dwellings, with the full scope of combined flood sources not having been fully understood prior to that event. Beyond physical hazard, Dungog's decile 4 SEIFA reading points to a narrower local income base, which constrains the depth of rental demand and resale liquidity, particularly during downturns. PropertyRanker reflects both of these concerns through its hazard_risk and entry_point_risk criteria.
Dungog station is the terminating point of the Hunter Line, with five weekday services running to and from Newcastle Interchange, making limited commuter access to Newcastle a genuine (if modest) demand driver for the suburb. PropertyRanker factors connectivity into its broader economic and demand criteria, but infrequent services relative to metropolitan corridors mean the commuter draw here is a supplementary signal rather than a dominant one. Investors should weigh whether a prospective tenant pool would actually use the rail link, given that car dependency is typical in regional towns of this size.
For any listing in postcode 2420, PropertyRanker applies its twelve-criteria model using the SEIFA IRSAD score of 944 as a direct input into economic_strength, hazard_risk, and entry_point_risk. The remaining criteria draw on listing-level data including the asking price, estimated rental income, and property attributes, which is why two listings on the same street can score very differently. Because rental yields, vacancy conditions, and pricing shift regularly in a thin market like Dungog, investors should run the specific listing through the tool to see the live composite score rather than relying on postcode-level generalisations.
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