This transcript was generated automatically and may contain small errors.
How much you're looking to invest can drastically change where could be the best place to put your money. In this episode, I'm going to break down different locations, unpacking days on market, vacancy rate, rental yield, and why they're the best fit for a budget of $650, $850, and $1. 2 million. I'm Junge Ma. Let's get into it.
As we know, in the long term, all markets tend to grow similarly as long as their local economy is healthy. So in this episode, when we talk about where to put your money in, we're mostly talking about the short-term growth. In other words, we'll be looking at high sales market pressure and high rental market pressure. If your budget is $650K, that's where the hottest markets are right now as interest rates are high. It won't be hard for you to achieve the balance between cash flow and good capital growth.
In this budget, I'm going to give you two markets. One has been hot for some time, and the other is on its way to recovery. The already hot market, let's look at Rockhampton. Rockhampton's median house price now is $550,000. It achieved 21% growth in the past one year.
And in 2025, we haven't seen signs of slowdown yet. It can be seen in one, the three-month rolling median price trend. It is still trending up steadily, almost parallel with the 12-month rolling median. That is a sign of a steady growth. And then if we look at the inventory and days on market trends, again, inventory stays below two, and days on market has dropped to a historic low level of around 16, 17 days.
On the other hand, in the rental market, pressure stays high. Vacancy rate was already low last year at around 0. 7, 0. 8%. And in 2025, we saw this slight drop to 0.
6%, a crisis level. As vacancy rate stays low, rental growth has been very healthy, 7% year-on-year growth in the past 12 months. Rental yield, naturally, when sales price growth exceeds rental price growth, we'd see yield going downward. It happened to Rockhampton. But as of 2025, the rental yield is still 5.
5%, quite healthy to hold a property in this high interest rate environment. Now, the second region for this $650,000 budget, Benegal. Benegal is different from Rockhampton. While Rockhampton is already hot, Benegal is recovering. Median house price now is $565,000.
Last year, it only achieved 1. 3% growth, but growth has been speeding up in recent months. We can see that in the uptick of the three-month rolling median price trend. If you look at market pressure indicators, inventory has been trending downward in recent months. Days on market has also been trending downward since mid-2024.
In the rental market, vacancy rate has been dropping, now sitting at 0. 9%. And as a result of the improvement in rental market pressure, rental prices have increased by 9% in a year. As rental growth exceeded price growth, rental yield has been increasing. Now it is 4.
7%. As interest rates go further down in the coming year, it'll be becoming easier and easier to hold a property in Benegal. Now let's move on to the $850,000 budget. With this budget, you can probably afford a property in a larger city. While there's no data showing that larger city would grow better than smaller cities, economy would be more resilient.
And for many investors, larger cities would psychologically feel safer. So for this budget, the two locations would be Toowoomba and Brimbank in Melbourne. So Toowoomba is the market that is already very hot. Median house price there is now $688,500. In the past year, it grew by 11%.
Not as high as how much it achieved two years ago, but still quite healthy. Well above the average level. And also, while last year we see some signs of slowdown, now the momentum is back. As we can see in the strong upward trend in the three-month rolling median house price trend. Now market pressure indicator.
Inventory now sits steady at two months of stock, very healthy. And days on market, after plateaued for more than a year, it is declining again. So the high market pressure will probably sustain for some time in the near future. In the rental market, vacancy rate stays extremely low at around 0. 6%.
And in the past year, rental growth has been quite steady, 9% year-on-year growth. Rental yield has been declining, now sitting at 4. 5%. But just as Bendigo, as interest rates go down in the coming year, it will be becoming easier for you to hold a property in Toowoomba. Now the second region for a $50,000 budget, Brimbank in Melbourne.
Now the median house price is $690,000 there. Just 1. 5% year-on-year growth. But we are seeing signs of speed up in the previous half a year. As we can see, the three-month rolling median trend line has been going up faster than the 12-month rolling median trend line.
For anyone who's listening this on iTunes or Spotify, go to our YouTube channel and you can see all the charts on the screen. Market pressure indicators. Inventory has been trending downward since the end of 2023, now sitting at 2. 8. At the same time, days on market is also trending downward over the past two years.
So Brimbank is clearly on its way to a steady recovery. In the rental market, vacancy rate sits at 0. 9%. There was an increase last year. However, the increase has been slowing down now.
As a result of a tight rental supply level, rental price increased by 11% over the past year. Rental yield now sits at 3. 8%. It's not as healthy as regional cities, but compared to other parts of Melbourne, it is actually a relatively healthy rental yield level. And again, it has been increasing.
And moving forward, it's very likely that the rental price growth will continue exceeding sales price growth and further improve the rental yield level. Now let's look at 1. 2 million budget. This budget may not be for every investor. Unless you're fairly well off, this may not be your first investment.
So at this budget, these regions are good for diversifying your portfolio instead of investing your money as first-time investor. In this budget, we have Waiyong in New South Wales' Central Coast and Hobsons Bay in Greater Melbourne. Waiyong, median house price now is $855,000, having achieved 6% year-on-year growth, quite healthy. And based on the three-month rolling median trend line, the healthy growth will continue. Market pressure indicators, both inventory and days on market have been stabilized.
Inventory is sitting at 3. 4 months of stock, while days on market has been around 35 days for quite a few months. So overall, market pressure here is quite balanced. In the rental market, vacancy rate declined from 1% back in the end of 2023 and now sitting at 0. 5%.
So rental pressure has been increasing. And as a result, rental prices grew by 9% over the past year. Rental yield is around 4%, a moderate level, but much healthier than most of the Greater Sydney regions, which are around one hour down south. Now, Hobsons Bay in Melbourne, median house price is close to 1 million, having achieved 5% year-on-year growth in the past year, much better than Greater Melbourne. And if we look at the three-month rolling median price trend, this healthy growth is looking likely to continue.
Pressure indicators, similar to Waiyong, pressure here is quite balanced. Inventory has been stabilized around 2. 8 months of stock, and days on market has been stabilized around 34 days. And in the rental market, vacancy rate is now around 1%. It was increasing in 2024, but now we are seeing this downward trend since early 2025.
And rental prices increased by 6% year-on-year, quite healthy. Rental yield now is around 3. 4%. It can be a bit hard on cash flow right now, but over time, as our vacancy rate stays high, your rental growth will gradually improve the yield on purchase. So six regions.
For $650,000 budget, we're looking at Rockhampton, the hotspot, and Bendigo, the recovering market. For $850,000 budget, we're looking at Toowoomba, the hotspot, and Brimbank, the recovering market. And for $1. 2 million budget, we're looking at Waiyong and Hobsons Bay in Melbourne. These regions are selected based on what we are seeing in data as of 2025.
This list is constantly changing, so stay tuned for our future updates. Let me know about your thoughts in a comment below. I'm Junge Ma, the lead research analyst at InvestorKit. I'll see you next time.
