Mayfield East vs Winmalee

The median house price is $1.1M in Mayfield East and $1.1M in Winmalee, so Winmalee is the cheaper entry point.

On cash flow, Winmalee leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.60%, compared with 3.52% in Mayfield East, a gap of 0.08 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +11.2% in Mayfield East and +7.8% in Winmalee, so recent momentum favours Mayfield East, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Mayfield East houses are +25.9% and Winmalee houses +26.4%, so Winmalee has compounded faster than Mayfield East over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Mayfield East and 2.0% in Winmalee, so landlords in Mayfield East face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Winmalee is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,388 against 1,794, roughly 3.6 times the size of Mayfield East; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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