Dulwich Hill vs Forest Lodge

The median house price is $2.5M in Dulwich Hill and $2.5M in Forest Lodge, so Dulwich Hill is the cheaper entry point, with Forest Lodge houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Dulwich Hill sits at a median of $970K against $1.2M in Forest Lodge, which makes Dulwich Hill the more affordable unit market and Forest Lodge the pricier one.

On cash flow, Forest Lodge leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.72%, compared with 2.23% in Dulwich Hill, a gap of 0.49 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +5.2% in Dulwich Hill (an estimate) and -2.3% in Forest Lodge (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Dulwich Hill, while Forest Lodge went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.1% in Dulwich Hill and 2.8% in Forest Lodge, so landlords in Dulwich Hill face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Dulwich Hill is the bigger suburb, with a population of 14,046 against 4,965, roughly 2.8 times the size of Forest Lodge; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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