Ocean Reef vs Willetton

The median house price is $1.5M in Ocean Reef and $1.5M in Willetton, so Willetton is the cheaper entry point, with Ocean Reef houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Ocean Reef leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.69%, compared with 3.13% in Willetton, a gap of 0.56 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +16.1% in Ocean Reef and +19.0% in Willetton, so recent momentum favours Willetton, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Ocean Reef houses are +52.9% and Willetton houses +58.7%, so Willetton has compounded faster than Ocean Reef over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Willetton and 1.7% in Ocean Reef, so landlords in Willetton face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Willetton is the bigger suburb, with a population of 19,262 against 8,125, roughly 2.4 times the size of Ocean Reef; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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