Altona vs McCrae

The median house price is $1.2M in Altona and $1.2M in McCrae, so Altona is the cheaper entry point, with McCrae houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Altona sits at a median of $725K against $785K in McCrae, which makes Altona the more affordable unit market and McCrae the pricier one.

On cash flow, McCrae leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.38%, compared with 3.12% in Altona, a gap of 0.26 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +1.3% in Altona (an estimate) and -7.5% in McCrae, so recent momentum favours Altona, while McCrae went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.8% in Altona and 4.4% in McCrae, so landlords in Altona face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Altona is the bigger suburb, with a population of 11,490 against 3,311, roughly 3.5 times the size of McCrae; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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