Athelstone vs Blackwood

The median house price is $1.1M in Athelstone and $1.1M in Blackwood, so Athelstone is the cheaper entry point, with Blackwood houses about 3% dearer.

For units, Athelstone sits at a median of $630K against $700K in Blackwood, which makes Athelstone the more affordable unit market and Blackwood the pricier one.

On cash flow, Athelstone leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.30%, compared with 3.10% in Blackwood, a gap of 0.20 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.1% in Athelstone and +7.1% in Blackwood, so recent momentum favours Athelstone, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Athelstone houses are +41.1% and Blackwood houses +39.4%, so Athelstone has compounded faster than Blackwood over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.4% in Blackwood and 0.5% in Athelstone, so landlords in Blackwood face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Athelstone is the bigger suburb, with a population of 9,601 against 4,266, roughly 2.3 times the size of Blackwood; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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