Glen Forrest vs Lesmurdie

The median house price is $1.2M in Glen Forrest and $1.2M in Lesmurdie, so Glen Forrest is the cheaper entry point, with Lesmurdie houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Glen Forrest sits at a median of $640K against $670K in Lesmurdie, which makes Glen Forrest the more affordable unit market and Lesmurdie the pricier one.

On cash flow, Lesmurdie leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.40%, compared with 3.15% in Glen Forrest, a gap of 0.25 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +16.3% in Glen Forrest and +17.7% in Lesmurdie, so recent momentum favours Lesmurdie, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Glen Forrest houses are +67.8% and Lesmurdie houses +59.8%, so Glen Forrest has compounded faster than Lesmurdie over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Glen Forrest and 1.1% in Lesmurdie, so landlords in Glen Forrest face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Lesmurdie is the bigger suburb, with a population of 8,413 against 2,789, roughly 3.0 times the size of Glen Forrest; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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