Ferny Hills vs Palm Cove

The median house price is $1.2M in Ferny Hills and $1.2M in Palm Cove, so Ferny Hills is the cheaper entry point.

On cash flow, Palm Cove leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.82%, compared with 3.30% in Ferny Hills, a gap of 0.52 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +13.7% in Ferny Hills and +14.6% in Palm Cove, so recent momentum favours Palm Cove, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Ferny Hills houses are +39.5% and Palm Cove houses +20.1%, so Ferny Hills has compounded faster than Palm Cove over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Palm Cove and 1.6% in Ferny Hills, so landlords in Palm Cove face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Ferny Hills is the bigger suburb, with a population of 8,726 against 2,450, roughly 3.6 times the size of Palm Cove; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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