Lakes Entrance vs Wonthaggi

The median house price is $540K in Lakes Entrance and $550K in Wonthaggi, so Lakes Entrance is the cheaper entry point, with Wonthaggi houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Lakes Entrance sits at a median of $430K against $400K in Wonthaggi, which makes Wonthaggi the more affordable unit market and Lakes Entrance the pricier one.

On cash flow, Lakes Entrance leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.80%, compared with 4.50% in Wonthaggi, a gap of 0.30 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +4.4% in Lakes Entrance and +1.4% in Wonthaggi, so recent momentum favours Lakes Entrance, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Lakes Entrance houses are +0.8% and Wonthaggi houses -0.5%, so Lakes Entrance has compounded faster than Wonthaggi over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.8% in Wonthaggi and 1.4% in Lakes Entrance, so landlords in Wonthaggi face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Wonthaggi is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,215 against 5,145, larger than Lakes Entrance; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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