McCrae vs Montmorency

The median house price is $1.2M in McCrae and $1.2M in Montmorency, so Montmorency is the cheaper entry point, with McCrae houses about 2% dearer.

For units, McCrae sits at a median of $785K against $775K in Montmorency, which makes Montmorency the more affordable unit market and McCrae the pricier one.

On cash flow, McCrae leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.38%, compared with 3.18% in Montmorency, a gap of 0.20 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -7.5% in McCrae and +3.0% in Montmorency (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Montmorency, while McCrae went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.1% in Montmorency and 4.4% in McCrae, so landlords in Montmorency face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Montmorency is the bigger suburb, with a population of 9,250 against 3,311, roughly 2.8 times the size of McCrae; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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