Bonnet Bay vs Rockdale

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.8M in Bonnet Bay and $1.8M in Rockdale.

For units, Bonnet Bay sits at a median of $825K against $740K in Rockdale, which makes Rockdale the more affordable unit market and Bonnet Bay the pricier one.

On cash flow, Bonnet Bay leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.06%, compared with 2.48% in Rockdale, a gap of 0.58 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +3.9% in Bonnet Bay and -1.1% in Rockdale, so recent momentum favours Bonnet Bay, while Rockdale went backwards.

Looking back three years, Bonnet Bay houses are +10.7% and Rockdale houses +16.2%, so Rockdale has compounded faster than Bonnet Bay over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.3% in Rockdale and 2.4% in Bonnet Bay, so landlords in Rockdale face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Rockdale is the bigger suburb, with a population of 15,475 against 2,238, roughly 7 times the size of Bonnet Bay; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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