Hamilton East vs Illawong

The median house price is $2M in Hamilton East and $2.0M in Illawong, so Hamilton East is the cheaper entry point, with Illawong houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Hamilton East sits at a median of $650K against $1.2M in Illawong, which makes Hamilton East the more affordable unit market and Illawong the pricier one.

On cash flow, Illawong leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.10%, compared with 2.34% in Hamilton East, a gap of 0.76 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +3.6% in Hamilton East and +7.8% in Illawong, so recent momentum favours Illawong, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Hamilton East houses are +13.2% and Illawong houses +20.3%, so Illawong has compounded faster than Hamilton East over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.3% in Hamilton East and 1.8% in Illawong, so landlords in Hamilton East face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Illawong is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,427 against 997, roughly 7 times the size of Hamilton East; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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