Port Kembla vs Yellow Rock

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

For units, Port Kembla sits at a median of $675K against $680K in Yellow Rock, which makes Port Kembla the more affordable unit market and Yellow Rock the pricier one.

On cash flow, Yellow Rock leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.50%, compared with 3.17% in Port Kembla, a gap of 0.33 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +4.3% in Port Kembla and +6.4% in Yellow Rock, so recent momentum favours Yellow Rock, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Port Kembla houses are +25.0% and Yellow Rock houses +22.7%, so Port Kembla has compounded faster than Yellow Rock over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Port Kembla and 3.1% in Yellow Rock, 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.

Port Kembla is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,088 against 1,119, roughly 4.5 times the size of Yellow Rock; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Yellow Rock for rental income, Yellow Rock for a lower purchase price, Yellow Rock 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.