Aubin Grove vs Balcatta

The median house price is $1.0M in Aubin Grove and $1.0M in Balcatta, so Balcatta is the cheaper entry point, with Aubin Grove houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Aubin Grove leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.03%, compared with 3.90% in Balcatta, a gap of 0.13 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +13.5% in Aubin Grove and +22.1% in Balcatta, so recent momentum favours Balcatta, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Aubin Grove houses are +69.0% and Balcatta houses +58.5%, so Aubin Grove has compounded faster than Balcatta over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Balcatta and 1.6% in Aubin Grove, so landlords in Balcatta face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Balcatta is the bigger suburb, with a population of 10,813 against 6,786, larger than Aubin Grove; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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