Clayton vs St Helena

The median house price is $1.3M in Clayton and $1.3M in St Helena, so Clayton is the cheaper entry point, with St Helena houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, St Helena leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.15%, compared with 2.57% in Clayton, a gap of 0.58 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -1.8% in Clayton and -1.1% in St Helena, so recent momentum favours St Helena, while Clayton went backwards.

Looking back three years, Clayton houses are +9.0% and St Helena houses +9.7%, so St Helena has compounded faster than Clayton over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.3% in St Helena and 1.6% in Clayton, so landlords in St Helena face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Clayton is the bigger suburb, with a population of 18,988 against 2,890, roughly 7 times the size of St Helena; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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