North Beach vs South Fremantle

The median house price is $2.1M in North Beach and $2M in South Fremantle, so South Fremantle is the cheaper entry point, with North Beach houses about 5% dearer.

On cash flow, South Fremantle leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.52%, compared with 2.30% in North Beach, a gap of 0.22 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +21.3% in North Beach (an estimate) and +10.0% in South Fremantle, so recent momentum favours North Beach, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.3% in South Fremantle and 0.8% in North Beach, so landlords in South Fremantle face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

North Beach is the bigger suburb, with a population of 3,689 against 3,398, larger than South Fremantle; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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