Earlwood vs Marrickville

The median house price is $2.1M in Earlwood and $2.2M in Marrickville, so Earlwood is the cheaper entry point, with Marrickville houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Earlwood sits at a median of $965K against $980K in Marrickville, which makes Earlwood the more affordable unit market and Marrickville the pricier one.

On cash flow, Marrickville leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.53%, compared with 2.43% in Earlwood, a gap of 0.10 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -0.4% in Earlwood (an estimate) and -1.5% in Marrickville (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Earlwood, while Marrickville went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.1% in Earlwood and 1.2% in Marrickville, so landlords in Earlwood face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Marrickville is the bigger suburb, with a population of 26,570 against 18,053, larger than Earlwood; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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