Depot Hill vs Rockhampton City

The median house price is $395K in Depot Hill and $420K in Rockhampton City, so Depot Hill is the cheaper entry point, with Rockhampton City houses about 6% dearer.

For units, Depot Hill sits at a median of $520K against $530K in Rockhampton City, which makes Depot Hill the more affordable unit market and Rockhampton City the pricier one.

On cash flow, Rockhampton City leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 6.19%, compared with 5.21% in Depot Hill, a gap of 0.98 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +21.7% in Depot Hill and +14.4% in Rockhampton City, so recent momentum favours Depot Hill, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Depot Hill houses are +88.1% and Rockhampton City houses +81.8%, so Depot Hill has compounded faster than Rockhampton City over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.4% in Rockhampton City and 0.9% in Depot Hill, so landlords in Rockhampton City face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Rockhampton City is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,059 against 995, roughly 2.1 times the size of Depot Hill; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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