Box Hill South vs Strathmore

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

On cash flow, Strathmore leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.73%, compared with 2.42% in Box Hill South, a gap of 0.31 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -0.1% in Box Hill South (an estimate) and -5.5% in Strathmore (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Box Hill South, while Strathmore went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Box Hill South and 2.8% in Strathmore, 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.

Strathmore is the bigger suburb, with a population of 8,980 against 8,491, larger than Box Hill South; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Strathmore 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.