Ascot Vale vs Mentone

The median house price is $1.4M in Ascot Vale and $1.4M in Mentone, so Ascot Vale is the cheaper entry point, with Mentone houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Ascot Vale sits at a median of $670K against $660K in Mentone, which makes Mentone the more affordable unit market and Ascot Vale the pricier one.

On cash flow, Mentone leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.07%, compared with 2.97% in Ascot Vale, a gap of 0.10 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +5.2% in Ascot Vale (an estimate) and +3.4% in Mentone (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Ascot Vale, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Mentone and 1.8% in Ascot Vale, so landlords in Mentone face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Ascot Vale is the bigger suburb, with a population of 15,197 against 13,197, larger than Mentone; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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