Alderley vs Cootharaba

For units, Alderley sits at a median of $855K against $1.2M in Cootharaba, which makes Alderley the more affordable unit market and Cootharaba the pricier one.

On cash flow, Cootharaba leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.15%, compared with 2.46% in Alderley, a gap of 0.69 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +12.7% in Alderley and +8.5% in Cootharaba, so recent momentum favours Alderley, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Alderley houses are +35.9% and Cootharaba houses +15.2%, so Alderley has compounded faster than Cootharaba over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.2% in Cootharaba and 1.8% in Alderley, so landlords in Cootharaba face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Alderley is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,748 against 866, roughly 8 times the size of Cootharaba; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Cootharaba for rental income, Alderley for recent price momentum, Cootharaba for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.