Lake Illawarra vs Toukley

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $935K in Lake Illawarra and $935K in Toukley.

On cash flow, Lake Illawarra leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.67%, compared with 3.22% in Toukley, a gap of 0.45 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.7% in Lake Illawarra and +11.4% in Toukley, so recent momentum favours Toukley, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Lake Illawarra houses are +25.4% and Toukley houses +19.2%, so Lake Illawarra has compounded faster than Toukley over the longer window.

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

Toukley is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,557 against 3,288, larger than Lake Illawarra; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Lake Illawarra for rental income, Toukley for recent price momentum, Toukley for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.