Allawah vs Thornleigh

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.9M in Allawah and $1.9M in Thornleigh.

For units, Allawah sits at a median of $840K against $795K in Thornleigh, which makes Thornleigh the more affordable unit market and Allawah the pricier one.

On cash flow, Thornleigh leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.52%, compared with 2.45% in Allawah, a gap of 0.07 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -2.9% in Allawah (an estimate) and -4.7% in Thornleigh, so recent momentum favours Allawah, while Thornleigh went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Thornleigh and 1.5% in Allawah, so landlords in Thornleigh face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Thornleigh is the bigger suburb, with a population of 8,898 against 5,351, larger than Allawah; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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