Ashbury vs Beacon Hill

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $2.4M in Ashbury and $2.4M in Beacon Hill.

For units, Ashbury sits at a median of $910K against $2.1M in Beacon Hill, which makes Ashbury the more affordable unit market and Beacon Hill the pricier one.

On cash flow, Beacon Hill leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.90%, compared with 2.17% in Ashbury, a gap of 0.73 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.4% in Ashbury and +0.1% in Beacon Hill (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Ashbury, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Ashbury and 2.0% in Beacon Hill, so landlords in Ashbury face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Beacon Hill is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,814 against 3,353, roughly 2.3 times the size of Ashbury; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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