Gympie vs Kirkwood

The median house price is $695K in Gympie and $690K in Kirkwood, so Kirkwood is the cheaper entry point, with Gympie houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Kirkwood leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.45%, compared with 4.35% in Gympie, a gap of 0.10 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +18.6% in Gympie and +15.4% in Kirkwood, so recent momentum favours Gympie, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Gympie houses are +46.8% and Kirkwood houses +54.0%, so Kirkwood has compounded faster than Gympie over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Gympie and 2.2% in Kirkwood, so landlords in Gympie face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Gympie is the bigger suburb, with a population of 11,355 against 2,513, roughly 4.5 times the size of Kirkwood; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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