Allambie Heights vs Crows Nest

The median house price is $2.8M in Allambie Heights and $2.8M in Crows Nest, so Allambie Heights is the cheaper entry point.

For units, Allambie Heights sits at a median of $310K against $1.0M in Crows Nest, which makes Allambie Heights the more affordable unit market and Crows Nest the pricier one.

On cash flow, Allambie Heights leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.55%, compared with 2.26% in Crows Nest, a gap of 0.29 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +4.2% in Allambie Heights and -13.4% in Crows Nest, so recent momentum favours Allambie Heights, while Crows Nest went backwards.

Looking back three years, Allambie Heights houses are +17.8% and Crows Nest houses +12.2%, so Allambie Heights has compounded faster than Crows Nest over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.2% in Crows Nest and 1.9% in Allambie Heights, so landlords in Crows Nest face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Allambie Heights is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,317 against 4,974, larger than Crows Nest; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Allambie Heights for rental income, Allambie Heights for a lower purchase price, Allambie Heights for recent price momentum, Crows Nest for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.