Bathurst vs Macksville

The median house price is $690K in Bathurst and $695K in Macksville, so Bathurst is the cheaper entry point, with Macksville houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Macksville leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.30%, compared with 4.22% in Bathurst, a gap of 0.08 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +5.7% in Bathurst and +8.0% in Macksville, so recent momentum favours Macksville, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Bathurst houses are +11.1% and Macksville houses +19.3%, so Macksville has compounded faster than Bathurst over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.4% in Macksville and 1.2% in Bathurst, so landlords in Macksville face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Bathurst is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,001 against 2,782, roughly 2.5 times the size of Macksville; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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