Box Hill South vs Essendon West

The median house price is $1.5M in Box Hill South and $1.5M in Essendon West, so Essendon West is the cheaper entry point, with Box Hill South houses about 2% dearer.

On cash flow, Essendon West leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.09%, compared with 2.42% in Box Hill South, a gap of 0.67 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -0.1% in Box Hill South (an estimate) and +3.8% in Essendon West (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Essendon West, while Box Hill South went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Box Hill South and 3.1% in Essendon West, so landlords in Box Hill South face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Box Hill South is the bigger suburb, with a population of 8,491 against 1,559, roughly 5 times the size of Essendon West; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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