Burnside vs Westbourne Park

The median house price is $1.8M in Burnside and $2.2M in Westbourne Park, so Burnside is the cheaper entry point, with Westbourne Park houses about 22% dearer.

For units, Burnside sits at a median of $820K against $580K in Westbourne Park, which makes Westbourne Park the more affordable unit market and Burnside the pricier one.

On cash flow, Burnside leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.32%, compared with 1.62% in Westbourne Park, a gap of 0.70 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +4.7% in Burnside and +7.2% in Westbourne Park, so recent momentum favours Westbourne Park, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Burnside houses are +42.5% and Westbourne Park houses +44.8%, so Westbourne Park has compounded faster than Burnside over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Westbourne Park and 3.4% in Burnside, so landlords in Westbourne Park face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Burnside is the bigger suburb, with a population of 3,060 against 2,564, larger than Westbourne Park; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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