Alderley vs Ball Bay

For units, Alderley sits at a median of $860K against $405K in Ball Bay, which makes Ball Bay the more affordable unit market and Alderley the pricier one.

On cash flow, Ball Bay leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.02%, compared with 2.45% in Alderley, a gap of 1.57 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +9.9% in Alderley and +14.5% in Ball Bay, so recent momentum favours Ball Bay, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Alderley houses are +36.8% and Ball Bay houses +47.4%, so Ball Bay has compounded faster than Alderley over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 2.0% in Alderley and 4.1% in Ball Bay, so landlords in Alderley face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Alderley is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,748 against 384, roughly 18 times the size of Ball Bay; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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