Avoca Beach vs Patonga

The median house price is $1.7M in Avoca Beach and $1.7M in Patonga, so Avoca Beach is the cheaper entry point.

For units, Avoca Beach sits at a median of $1.5M against $695K in Patonga, which makes Patonga the more affordable unit market and Avoca Beach the pricier one.

On cash flow, Avoca Beach leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.72%, compared with 2.42% in Patonga, a gap of 0.30 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -3.5% in Avoca Beach and +8.9% in Patonga (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Patonga, while Avoca Beach went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.3% in Patonga and 3.1% in Avoca Beach, so landlords in Patonga face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Avoca Beach is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,708 against 235, roughly 20 times the size of Patonga; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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