Forth vs Kingston

The median house price is $820K in Forth and $800K in Kingston, so Kingston is the cheaper entry point, with Forth houses about 3% dearer.

For units, Forth sits at a median of $405K against $615K in Kingston, which makes Forth the more affordable unit market and Kingston the pricier one.

On cash flow, Kingston leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.23%, compared with 3.37% in Forth, a gap of 0.86 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +18.9% in Forth (an estimate) and +8.4% in Kingston (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Forth, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Kingston and 2.0% in Forth, so landlords in Kingston face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Kingston is the bigger suburb, with a population of 12,288 against 738, roughly 17 times the size of Forth; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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