Port Kembla vs Spring Farm

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.1M in Port Kembla and $1.1M in Spring Farm.

For units, Port Kembla sits at a median of $675K against $725K in Spring Farm, which makes Port Kembla the more affordable unit market and Spring Farm the pricier one.

On cash flow, Spring Farm leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.45%, compared with 3.17% in Port Kembla, a gap of 0.28 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +4.3% in Port Kembla and +7.9% in Spring Farm, so recent momentum favours Spring Farm, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Port Kembla houses are +25.0% and Spring Farm houses +20.5%, so Port Kembla has compounded faster than Spring Farm over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Port Kembla and 2.0% in Spring Farm, 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.

Spring Farm is the bigger suburb, with a population of 9,868 against 5,088, larger than Port Kembla; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Spring Farm for rental income, Spring Farm 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.