Kenthurst vs Lane Cove

The median house price is $3.3M in Kenthurst and $3.2M in Lane Cove, so Lane Cove is the cheaper entry point, with Kenthurst houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Kenthurst sits at a median of $1.4M against $975K in Lane Cove, which makes Lane Cove the more affordable unit market and Kenthurst the pricier one.

On cash flow, Lane Cove leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.09%, compared with 1.64% in Kenthurst, a gap of 0.45 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -7.7% in Kenthurst and -5.5% in Lane Cove, so recent momentum favours Lane Cove, while Kenthurst went backwards.

Looking back three years, Kenthurst houses are +0.0% and Lane Cove houses +5.1%, so Lane Cove has compounded faster than Kenthurst over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.1% in Lane Cove and 3.1% in Kenthurst, so landlords in Lane Cove face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Lane Cove is the bigger suburb, with a population of 12,363 against 5,313, roughly 2.3 times the size of Kenthurst; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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