Lockhart vs Wellington

The median house price is $385K in Lockhart and $380K in Wellington, so Wellington is the cheaper entry point, with Lockhart houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Lockhart sits at a median of $660K against $425K in Wellington, which makes Wellington the more affordable unit market and Lockhart the pricier one.

On cash flow, Wellington leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 6.41%, compared with 5.79% in Lockhart, a gap of 0.62 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +11.6% in Lockhart and +20.1% in Wellington, so recent momentum favours Wellington, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Lockhart houses are +35.5% and Wellington houses +32.5%, so Lockhart has compounded faster than Wellington over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Lockhart and 1.3% in Wellington, so landlords in Lockhart face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Wellington is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,096 against 1,019, roughly 4.0 times the size of Lockhart; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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