Illawong vs Miranda

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

For units, Illawong sits at a median of $1.2M against $840K in Miranda, which makes Miranda 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 2.56% in Miranda, a gap of 0.54 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +7.8% in Illawong and +4.4% in Miranda, so recent momentum favours Illawong, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Illawong houses are +20.3% and Miranda houses +19.2%, so Illawong has compounded faster than Miranda over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Miranda and 1.8% in Illawong, so landlords in Miranda face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Miranda is the bigger suburb, with a population of 17,942 against 7,427, roughly 2.4 times the size of Illawong; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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