Illawong vs Westmead

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

For units, Illawong sits at a median of $1.2M against $600K in Westmead, which makes Westmead 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 2.23% in Westmead, a gap of 0.87 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +7.8% in Illawong and +1.7% in Westmead, so recent momentum favours Illawong, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Illawong houses are +20.3% and Westmead houses +7.5%, so Illawong has compounded faster than Westmead over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Westmead and 1.8% in Illawong, so landlords in Westmead face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Westmead is the bigger suburb, with a population of 16,555 against 7,427, roughly 2.2 times the size of Illawong; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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