Corio vs Stratford

The median house price is $590K in Corio and $585K in Stratford, so Stratford is the cheaper entry point, with Corio houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Corio sits at a median of $450K against $355K in Stratford, which makes Stratford the more affordable unit market and Corio the pricier one.

On cash flow, Stratford leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.90%, compared with 3.97% in Corio, a gap of 0.93 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +16.3% in Corio and +9.7% in Stratford, so recent momentum favours Corio, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Corio houses are +20.1% and Stratford houses +13.5%, so Corio has compounded faster than Stratford over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.3% in Corio and 1.5% in Stratford, so landlords in Corio face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Corio is the bigger suburb, with a population of 15,497 against 2,980, roughly 5 times the size of Stratford; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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