Grafton vs Lismore

The median house price is $555K in Grafton and $560K in Lismore, so Grafton is the cheaper entry point, with Lismore houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Lismore leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 5.40%, compared with 5.13% in Grafton, a gap of 0.27 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +7.2% in Grafton and +14.6% in Lismore, so recent momentum favours Lismore, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Grafton houses are +15.2% and Lismore houses +46.3%, so Lismore has compounded faster than Grafton over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.2% in Lismore and 0.6% in Grafton, so landlords in Lismore face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Grafton is the bigger suburb, with a population of 10,563 against 3,656, roughly 2.9 times the size of Lismore; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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