Athelstone vs Macdonald Park

For units, Athelstone sits at a median of $630K against $680K in Macdonald Park, which makes Athelstone the more affordable unit market and Macdonald Park the pricier one.

On cash flow, Athelstone leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.30%, compared with 1.58% in Macdonald Park, a gap of 1.72 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.1% in Athelstone and +9.0% in Macdonald Park, so recent momentum favours Athelstone, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Athelstone houses are +41.1% and Macdonald Park houses +34.0%, so Athelstone has compounded faster than Macdonald Park over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Athelstone and 7.7% in Macdonald Park, so landlords in Athelstone 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 503, roughly 19 times the size of Macdonald Park; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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