Blackburn vs Donvale

The median house price is $1.6M in Blackburn and $1.6M in Donvale, so Donvale is the cheaper entry point, with Blackburn houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Blackburn sits at a median of $765K against $850K in Donvale, which makes Blackburn the more affordable unit market and Donvale the pricier one.

On cash flow, Donvale leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.67%, compared with 2.22% in Blackburn, a gap of 0.45 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +0.3% in Blackburn and +2.6% in Donvale, so recent momentum favours Donvale, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Blackburn houses are +3.7% and Donvale houses +8.4%, so Donvale has compounded faster than Blackburn over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is the same in both, at 1.6%.

Blackburn is the bigger suburb, with a population of 14,478 against 12,644, larger than Donvale; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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