Box Hill South vs Fairhaven

The median house price is $1.5M in Box Hill South and $1.5M in Fairhaven, so Box Hill South is the cheaper entry point, with Fairhaven houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Box Hill South leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.42%, compared with 1.69% in Fairhaven, a gap of 0.73 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -0.1% in Box Hill South (an estimate) and -13.2% in Fairhaven (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Box Hill South, while Fairhaven went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Box Hill South and 3.2% in Fairhaven, so landlords in Box Hill South face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Box Hill South is the bigger suburb, with a population of 8,491 against 390, roughly 22 times the size of Fairhaven; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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