Narellan Vale vs Port Kembla

The median house price is $1.1M in Narellan Vale and $1.1M in Port Kembla, so Narellan Vale is the cheaper entry point.

For units, Narellan Vale sits at a median of $895K against $675K in Port Kembla, which makes Port Kembla the more affordable unit market and Narellan Vale the pricier one.

On cash flow, Narellan Vale leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.30%, compared with 3.17% in Port Kembla, a gap of 0.13 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +9.2% in Narellan Vale and +4.3% in Port Kembla, so recent momentum favours Narellan Vale, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Narellan Vale houses are +20.7% and Port Kembla houses +25.0%, so Port Kembla has compounded faster than Narellan Vale over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Port Kembla and 1.7% in Narellan Vale, so landlords in Port Kembla face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Narellan Vale is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,931 against 5,088, larger than Port Kembla; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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