Aspendale vs Highett

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

For units, Aspendale sits at a median of $865K against $705K in Highett, which makes Highett the more affordable unit market and Aspendale the pricier one.

On cash flow, Highett leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.21%, compared with 3.00% in Aspendale, a gap of 0.21 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +5.2% in Aspendale (an estimate) and -0.2% in Highett (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Aspendale, while Highett went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Aspendale and 1.4% in Highett, so landlords in Aspendale face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Highett is the bigger suburb, with a population of 12,016 against 7,285, larger than Aspendale; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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