Athelstone vs Salisbury Downs

For units, Athelstone sits at a median of $630K against $220K in Salisbury Downs, which makes Salisbury Downs the more affordable unit market and Athelstone the pricier one.

On cash flow, Salisbury Downs leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.84%, compared with 3.30% in Athelstone, a gap of 0.54 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.1% in Athelstone and +15.5% in Salisbury Downs (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Salisbury Downs, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Athelstone and 0.8% in Salisbury Downs, 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 6,296, larger than Salisbury Downs; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Salisbury Downs for rental income, Salisbury Downs 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.