Aberdare vs Mendooran

For units, Aberdare sits at a median of $550K against $1.7M in Mendooran, which makes Aberdare the more affordable unit market and Mendooran the pricier one.

On cash flow, Mendooran leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 6.50%, compared with 4.10% in Aberdare, a gap of 2.40 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.7% in Aberdare and +9.5% in Mendooran, so recent momentum favours Aberdare, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Aberdare houses are +32.0% and Mendooran houses +57.4%, so Mendooran has compounded faster than Aberdare over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.5% in Mendooran and 1.8% in Aberdare, so landlords in Mendooran face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Aberdare is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,542 against 626, roughly 4.1 times the size of Mendooran; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Mendooran for rental income, Aberdare for recent price momentum, Mendooran for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.