Black Rock vs Hawthorn East

The median house price is $2.4M in Black Rock and $2.4M in Hawthorn East, so Black Rock is the cheaper entry point, with Hawthorn East houses about 3% dearer.

On cash flow, Black Rock leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.00%, compared with 2.37% in Hawthorn East, a gap of 0.63 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -2.3% in Black Rock and -5.0% in Hawthorn East, so recent momentum favours Black Rock, while Hawthorn East went backwards.

Looking back three years, Black Rock houses are +4.9% and Hawthorn East houses -13.0%, so Black Rock has compounded faster than Hawthorn East over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.1% in Black Rock and 1.8% in Hawthorn East, so landlords in Black Rock face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Hawthorn East is the bigger suburb, with a population of 14,834 against 6,389, roughly 2.3 times the size of Black Rock; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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