Meridan Plains vs Pacific Heights

The median house price is $955K in Meridan Plains and $950K in Pacific Heights, so Pacific Heights is the cheaper entry point, with Meridan Plains houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Meridan Plains sits at a median of $780K against $1.1M in Pacific Heights, which makes Meridan Plains the more affordable unit market and Pacific Heights the pricier one.

On cash flow, Pacific Heights leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.20%, compared with 3.90% in Meridan Plains, a gap of 0.30 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +18.6% in Meridan Plains and +11.1% in Pacific Heights, so recent momentum favours Meridan Plains, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Meridan Plains houses are +28.6% and Pacific Heights houses +29.3%, so Pacific Heights has compounded faster than Meridan Plains over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.2% in Meridan Plains and 4.4% in Pacific Heights, so landlords in Meridan Plains face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Meridan Plains is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,589 against 1,111, roughly 4.1 times the size of Pacific Heights; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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