Wattle Park vs Westbourne Park

The median house price is $1.9M in Wattle Park and $2.2M in Westbourne Park, so Wattle Park is the cheaper entry point, with Westbourne Park houses about 17% dearer.

On cash flow, Wattle Park leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.54%, compared with 1.62% in Westbourne Park, a gap of 0.92 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +8.5% in Wattle Park and +7.2% in Westbourne Park, so recent momentum favours Wattle Park, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Wattle Park houses are +53.7% and Westbourne Park houses +44.8%, so Wattle Park has compounded faster than Westbourne Park over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Westbourne Park and 1.2% in Wattle Park, so landlords in Westbourne Park face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Westbourne Park is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,564 against 1,885, larger than Wattle Park; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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