Glen Iris vs Kew

The median house price is $2.4M in Glen Iris and $2.5M in Kew, so Glen Iris is the cheaper entry point, with Kew houses about 5% dearer.

For units, Glen Iris sits at a median of $720K against $850K in Kew, which makes Glen Iris the more affordable unit market and Kew the pricier one.

On cash flow, Glen Iris leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.46%, compared with 2.35% in Kew, a gap of 0.11 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -2.3% in Glen Iris (an estimate) and -3.4% in Kew, so recent momentum favours Glen Iris, while Kew went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.6% in Kew and 1.8% in Glen Iris, so landlords in Kew face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Glen Iris is the bigger suburb, with a population of 26,131 against 24,499, larger than Kew; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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