Carnegie vs Northcote

The median house price is $1.7M in Carnegie and $1.7M in Northcote, so Carnegie is the cheaper entry point, with Northcote houses about 3% dearer.

For units, Carnegie sits at a median of $640K against $680K in Northcote, which makes Carnegie the more affordable unit market and Northcote the pricier one.

On cash flow, Carnegie leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.86%, compared with 2.71% in Northcote, a gap of 0.15 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +1.0% in Carnegie and +3.1% in Northcote (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Northcote, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 1.3% in Northcote and 2.0% in Carnegie, so landlords in Northcote face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Northcote is the bigger suburb, with a population of 25,276 against 17,909, larger than Carnegie; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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