Essendon vs Fairfield

The median house price is $1.8M in Essendon and $1.8M in Fairfield, so Fairfield is the cheaper entry point, with Essendon houses about 2% dearer.

On cash flow, Fairfield leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.59%, compared with 2.28% in Essendon, a gap of 0.31 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.8% in Essendon and +6.1% in Fairfield, so recent momentum favours Essendon, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Essendon houses are +1.4% and Fairfield houses +13.2%, so Fairfield has compounded faster than Essendon over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Fairfield and 1.5% in Essendon, so landlords in Fairfield face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Essendon is the bigger suburb, with a population of 21,240 against 6,535, roughly 3.3 times the size of Fairfield; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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