Blackmans Bay vs New Town

The median house price is $905K in Blackmans Bay and $890K in New Town, so New Town is the cheaper entry point, with Blackmans Bay houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Blackmans Bay sits at a median of $670K against $480K in New Town, which makes New Town the more affordable unit market and Blackmans Bay the pricier one.

On cash flow, New Town leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.94%, compared with 3.70% in Blackmans Bay, a gap of 0.24 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.0% in Blackmans Bay and +0.0% in New Town, so recent momentum favours Blackmans Bay, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Blackmans Bay houses are +1.2% and New Town houses -6.4%, so Blackmans Bay has compounded faster than New Town over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.4% in New Town and 1.2% in Blackmans Bay, so landlords in New Town face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Blackmans Bay is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,688 against 6,781, larger than New Town; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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