Keilor East vs Mulgrave

The median house price is $1.1M in Keilor East and $1.1M in Mulgrave, so Mulgrave is the cheaper entry point, with Keilor East houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Keilor East sits at a median of $710K against $850K in Mulgrave, which makes Keilor East the more affordable unit market and Mulgrave the pricier one.

On cash flow, Mulgrave leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.14%, compared with 2.84% in Keilor East, a gap of 0.30 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +10.8% in Keilor East and +2.3% in Mulgrave, so recent momentum favours Keilor East, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Keilor East houses are +15.4% and Mulgrave houses +14.7%, so Keilor East has compounded faster than Mulgrave over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.8% in Keilor East and 1.9% in Mulgrave, so landlords in Keilor East face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Mulgrave is the bigger suburb, with a population of 19,889 against 15,078, larger than Keilor East; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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