Koondrook vs Venus Bay

The median house price is $480K in Koondrook and $490K in Venus Bay, so Koondrook is the cheaper entry point, with Venus Bay houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Koondrook sits at a median of $415K against $495K in Venus Bay, which makes Koondrook the more affordable unit market and Venus Bay the pricier one.

On cash flow, Koondrook leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.72%, compared with 4.33% in Venus Bay, a gap of 0.39 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.9% in Koondrook and +0.9% in Venus Bay, so recent momentum favours Koondrook, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Koondrook houses are +39.8% and Venus Bay houses -30.0%, so Koondrook has compounded faster than Venus Bay over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.1% in Venus Bay and 1.4% in Koondrook, so landlords in Venus Bay face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Koondrook is the bigger suburb, with a population of 1,101 against 904, larger than Venus Bay; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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