Alice River vs Forest Lake

The median house price is $1M in Alice River and $1.0M in Forest Lake, so Alice River is the cheaper entry point, with Forest Lake houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Alice River leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.73%, compared with 3.56% in Forest Lake, a gap of 0.17 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +19.8% in Alice River and +14.8% in Forest Lake, so recent momentum favours Alice River, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Alice River houses are +39.3% and Forest Lake houses +47.3%, so Forest Lake has compounded faster than Alice River over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Forest Lake and 2.4% in Alice River, so landlords in Forest Lake face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Forest Lake is the bigger suburb, with a population of 22,676 against 2,685, roughly 8 times the size of Alice River; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Alice River for rental income, Alice River for a lower purchase price, Alice River for recent price momentum, Forest Lake for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.