Mont Albert vs Surrey Hills

The median house price is $2.2M in Mont Albert and $2.2M in Surrey Hills, so Surrey Hills is the cheaper entry point, with Mont Albert houses about 4% dearer.

For units, Mont Albert sits at a median of $820K against $900K in Surrey Hills, which makes Mont Albert the more affordable unit market and Surrey Hills the pricier one.

On cash flow, Surrey Hills leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.23%, compared with 1.74% in Mont Albert, a gap of 0.49 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -6.5% in Mont Albert (an estimate) and -6.5% in Surrey Hills (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Surrey Hills, while Mont Albert went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.9% in Mont Albert and 2.6% in Surrey Hills, so landlords in Mont Albert face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Surrey Hills is the bigger suburb, with a population of 13,655 against 4,948, roughly 2.8 times the size of Mont Albert; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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