Croydon Hills vs Yarraville

The median house price is $1.2M in Croydon Hills and $1.2M in Yarraville, so Croydon Hills is the cheaper entry point, with Yarraville houses about 2% dearer.

On cash flow, Croydon Hills leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.32%, compared with 3.10% in Yarraville, a gap of 0.22 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +1.3% in Croydon Hills (an estimate) and +0.8% in Yarraville, so recent momentum favours Croydon Hills, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Yarraville and 1.0% in Croydon Hills, so landlords in Yarraville face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Yarraville is the bigger suburb, with a population of 15,636 against 4,839, roughly 3.2 times the size of Croydon Hills; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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