Mulgrave vs Oak Park

The median house price is $1.1M in Mulgrave and $1.1M in Oak Park, so Mulgrave is the cheaper entry point.

For units, Mulgrave sits at a median of $850K against $665K in Oak Park, which makes Oak Park the more affordable unit market and Mulgrave the pricier one.

Over the past year house prices moved +2.3% in Mulgrave and -4.3% in Oak Park, so recent momentum favours Mulgrave, while Oak Park went backwards.

Looking back three years, Mulgrave houses are +14.7% and Oak Park houses +4.2%, so Mulgrave has compounded faster than Oak Park over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.5% in Oak Park and 1.9% in Mulgrave, so landlords in Oak Park face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Mulgrave is the bigger suburb, with a population of 19,889 against 6,714, roughly 3.0 times the size of Oak Park; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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