Nar Nar Goon vs Upper Ferntree Gully

The median house price is $950K in Nar Nar Goon and $945K in Upper Ferntree Gully, so Upper Ferntree Gully is the cheaper entry point, with Nar Nar Goon houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Nar Nar Goon leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.60%, compared with 3.50% in Upper Ferntree Gully, a gap of 0.10 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -7.6% in Nar Nar Goon (an estimate) and -1.4% in Upper Ferntree Gully (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Upper Ferntree Gully, while Nar Nar Goon went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 0.4% in Upper Ferntree Gully and 2.3% in Nar Nar Goon, so landlords in Upper Ferntree Gully face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Upper Ferntree Gully is the bigger suburb, with a population of 3,417 against 1,023, roughly 3.3 times the size of Nar Nar Goon; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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