Highland Park vs Shailer Park

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.2M in Highland Park and $1.2M in Shailer Park.

For units, Highland Park sits at a median of $820K against $670K in Shailer Park, which makes Shailer Park the more affordable unit market and Highland Park the pricier one.

On cash flow, Highland Park leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.06%, compared with 3.20% in Shailer Park, a gap of 0.86 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.5% in Highland Park and +15.8% in Shailer Park (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Shailer Park, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Shailer Park and 1.3% in Highland Park, so landlords in Shailer Park face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Shailer Park is the bigger suburb, with a population of 12,182 against 6,576, larger than Highland Park; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Highland Park for rental income, Shailer Park for recent price momentum, Shailer Park for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.