Blackburn vs St Kilda East

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.6M in Blackburn and $1.6M in St Kilda East.

For units, Blackburn sits at a median of $765K against $585K in St Kilda East, which makes St Kilda East the more affordable unit market and Blackburn the pricier one.

On cash flow, St Kilda East leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.15%, compared with 2.22% in Blackburn, a gap of 0.93 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +0.3% in Blackburn and -1.4% in St Kilda East (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Blackburn, while St Kilda East went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.6% in Blackburn and 1.8% in St Kilda East, so landlords in Blackburn face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Blackburn is the bigger suburb, with a population of 14,478 against 12,571, larger than St Kilda East; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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