Chatham vs West Albury

The median house price is $645K in Chatham and $655K in West Albury, so Chatham is the cheaper entry point, with West Albury houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Chatham sits at a median of $400K against $450K in West Albury, which makes Chatham the more affordable unit market and West Albury the pricier one.

On cash flow, Chatham leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.52%, compared with 4.08% in West Albury, a gap of 0.44 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -10.7% in Chatham (an estimate) and +12.6% in West Albury, so recent momentum favours West Albury, while Chatham went backwards.

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

Chatham is the bigger suburb, with a population of 36,841 against 3,872, roughly 10 times the size of West Albury; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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