Doncaster vs Fitzroy

The median house price is $1.5M in Doncaster and $1.6M in Fitzroy, so Doncaster is the cheaper entry point, with Fitzroy houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Doncaster sits at a median of $650K against $810K in Fitzroy, which makes Doncaster the more affordable unit market and Fitzroy the pricier one.

On cash flow, Fitzroy leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.60%, compared with 2.70% in Doncaster, a gap of 0.90 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +1.6% in Doncaster and -10.2% in Fitzroy (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Doncaster, while Fitzroy went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 0.8% in Fitzroy and 1.9% in Doncaster, so landlords in Fitzroy face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Doncaster is the bigger suburb, with a population of 25,020 against 10,431, roughly 2.4 times the size of Fitzroy; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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