Melrose Park vs West Ryde

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $2.5M in Melrose Park and $2.5M in West Ryde.

For units, Melrose Park sits at a median of $790K against $725K in West Ryde, which makes West Ryde the more affordable unit market and Melrose Park the pricier one.

On cash flow, West Ryde leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 1.91%, compared with 1.84% in Melrose Park, a gap of 0.07 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +0.0% in Melrose Park and +2.3% in West Ryde, so recent momentum favours West Ryde, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Melrose Park houses are +7.8% and West Ryde houses +3.3%, so Melrose Park has compounded faster than West Ryde over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in West Ryde and 1.2% in Melrose Park, so landlords in West Ryde face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

West Ryde is the bigger suburb, with a population of 13,171 against 2,059, roughly 6 times the size of Melrose Park; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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