Kew East vs Mont Albert

The median house price is $2.3M in Kew East and $2.2M in Mont Albert, so Mont Albert is the cheaper entry point, with Kew East houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Kew East sits at a median of $1.1M against $820K in Mont Albert, which makes Mont Albert the more affordable unit market and Kew East the pricier one.

On cash flow, Kew East leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.40%, compared with 1.74% in Mont Albert, a gap of 0.66 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -2.0% in Kew East (an estimate) and -6.5% in Mont Albert (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Kew East, while Mont Albert went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.1% in Kew East and 1.9% in Mont Albert, so landlords in Kew East face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Kew East is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,620 against 4,948, larger than Mont Albert; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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