Macquarie Fields vs St Andrews

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.0M in Macquarie Fields and $1.0M in St Andrews.

On cash flow, St Andrews leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.33%, compared with 3.19% in Macquarie Fields, a gap of 0.14 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +9.7% in Macquarie Fields and +8.6% in St Andrews, so recent momentum favours Macquarie Fields, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Macquarie Fields houses are +23.5% and St Andrews houses +23.7%, so St Andrews has compounded faster than Macquarie Fields over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Macquarie Fields and 2.4% in St Andrews, so landlords in Macquarie Fields face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Macquarie Fields is the bigger suburb, with a population of 14,023 against 5,785, roughly 2.4 times the size of St Andrews; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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