Apollo Bay vs Hallam

The median house price is $800K in Apollo Bay and $805K in Hallam, so Apollo Bay is the cheaper entry point, with Hallam houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Apollo Bay sits at a median of $710K against $625K in Hallam, which makes Hallam the more affordable unit market and Apollo Bay the pricier one.

On cash flow, Hallam leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.68%, compared with 3.33% in Apollo Bay, a gap of 0.35 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -6.3% in Apollo Bay (an estimate) and +7.7% in Hallam (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Hallam, while Apollo Bay went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Hallam and 1.1% in Apollo Bay, so landlords in Hallam face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Hallam is the bigger suburb, with a population of 11,355 against 1,790, roughly 6 times the size of Apollo Bay; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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