Inverleigh vs McCrae

The median house price is $1.2M in Inverleigh and $1.2M in McCrae, so Inverleigh is the cheaper entry point, with McCrae houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Inverleigh sits at a median of $675K against $785K in McCrae, which makes Inverleigh the more affordable unit market and McCrae the pricier one.

On cash flow, McCrae leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.38%, compared with 2.05% in Inverleigh, a gap of 1.33 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.3% in Inverleigh and -7.5% in McCrae, so recent momentum favours Inverleigh, while McCrae went backwards.

Looking back three years, Inverleigh houses are +4.7% and McCrae houses -9.4%, so Inverleigh has compounded faster than McCrae over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.7% in Inverleigh and 4.4% in McCrae, so landlords in Inverleigh face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

McCrae is the bigger suburb, with a population of 3,311 against 1,746, larger than Inverleigh; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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