Somerville vs Tecoma

The median house price is $915K in Somerville and $920K in Tecoma, so Somerville is the cheaper entry point, with Tecoma houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Somerville sits at a median of $630K against $755K in Tecoma, which makes Somerville the more affordable unit market and Tecoma the pricier one.

On cash flow, Somerville leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.80%, compared with 2.77% in Tecoma, a gap of 1.03 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.8% in Somerville (an estimate) and +5.2% in Tecoma, so recent momentum favours Somerville, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.3% in Somerville and 0.9% in Tecoma, so landlords in Somerville face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Somerville is the bigger suburb, with a population of 11,767 against 2,064, roughly 6 times the size of Tecoma; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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