Montmorency vs Yarraville

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

For units, Montmorency sits at a median of $775K against $620K in Yarraville, which makes Yarraville the more affordable unit market and Montmorency the pricier one.

On cash flow, Montmorency leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.18%, compared with 3.10% in Yarraville, a gap of 0.08 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +3.0% in Montmorency (an estimate) and +0.8% in Yarraville, so recent momentum favours Montmorency, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Yarraville and 1.1% in Montmorency, so landlords in Yarraville face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Yarraville is the bigger suburb, with a population of 15,636 against 9,250, larger than Montmorency; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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