Ferndale vs Port Kennedy

The median house price is $860K in Ferndale and $850K in Port Kennedy, so Port Kennedy is the cheaper entry point, with Ferndale houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Ferndale sits at a median of $680K against $640K in Port Kennedy, which makes Port Kennedy the more affordable unit market and Ferndale the pricier one.

On cash flow, Ferndale leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.30%, compared with 4.13% in Port Kennedy, a gap of 0.17 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +18.6% in Ferndale (an estimate) and +19.2% in Port Kennedy, so recent momentum favours Port Kennedy, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Ferndale and 1.3% in Port Kennedy, so landlords in Ferndale face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Port Kennedy is the bigger suburb, with a population of 13,477 against 4,457, roughly 3.0 times the size of Ferndale; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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