Narrandera vs South Lismore

The median house price is $410K in Narrandera and $405K in South Lismore, so South Lismore is the cheaper entry point, with Narrandera houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, South Lismore leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 6.80%, compared with 5.33% in Narrandera, a gap of 1.47 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +10.2% in Narrandera and +15.2% in South Lismore (an estimate), so recent momentum favours South Lismore, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.6% in South Lismore and 2.1% in Narrandera, so landlords in South Lismore face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Narrandera is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,369 against 1,775, roughly 2.5 times the size of South Lismore; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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