Boolarra vs Stratford

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $585K in Boolarra and $585K in Stratford.

For units, Boolarra sits at a median of $330K against $355K in Stratford, which makes Boolarra the more affordable unit market and Stratford the pricier one.

On cash flow, Stratford leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.90%, compared with 4.31% in Boolarra, a gap of 0.59 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -3.8% in Boolarra (an estimate) and +9.7% in Stratford, so recent momentum favours Stratford, while Boolarra went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.5% in Stratford and 1.7% in Boolarra, so landlords in Stratford face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Stratford is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,980 against 1,023, roughly 2.9 times the size of Boolarra; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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