Essendon North vs Mount Martha

The median house price is $1.4M in Essendon North and $1.4M in Mount Martha, so Essendon North is the cheaper entry point, with Mount Martha houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Essendon North sits at a median of $415K against $810K in Mount Martha, which makes Essendon North the more affordable unit market and Mount Martha the pricier one.

On cash flow, Mount Martha leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.32%, compared with 2.54% in Essendon North, a gap of 0.78 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +13.7% in Essendon North and -1.6% in Mount Martha, so recent momentum favours Essendon North, while Mount Martha went backwards.

Looking back three years, Essendon North houses are +24.2% and Mount Martha houses -23.1%, so Essendon North has compounded faster than Mount Martha over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Essendon North and 2.0% in Mount Martha, so landlords in Essendon North face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Mount Martha is the bigger suburb, with a population of 19,846 against 3,071, roughly 6 times the size of Essendon North; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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