Aintree vs Caulfield North

For units, Aintree sits at a median of $575K against $640K in Caulfield North, which makes Aintree the more affordable unit market and Caulfield North the pricier one.

On cash flow, Aintree leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.98%, compared with 2.00% in Caulfield North, a gap of 1.98 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +1.1% in Aintree and -10.6% in Caulfield North, so recent momentum favours Aintree, while Caulfield North went backwards.

Looking back three years, Aintree houses are -3.9% and Caulfield North houses -5.3%, so Aintree has compounded faster than Caulfield North over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 2.4% in Caulfield North and 14.5% in Aintree, so landlords in Caulfield North face less competition for tenants.

Caulfield North is the bigger suburb, with a population of 16,903 against 7,982, roughly 2.1 times the size of Aintree; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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