Fern Bay vs Pelican

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.1M in Fern Bay and $1.1M in Pelican.

On cash flow, Pelican leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.70%, compared with 3.50% in Fern Bay, a gap of 0.20 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.5% in Fern Bay and +8.6% in Pelican, so recent momentum favours Pelican, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Fern Bay houses are +10.6% and Pelican houses +34.2%, so Pelican has compounded faster than Fern Bay over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Fern Bay and 5.5% in Pelican, so landlords in Fern Bay face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Fern Bay is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,046 against 874, roughly 4.6 times the size of Pelican; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Pelican for rental income, Pelican for recent price momentum, Fern Bay for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.