Cessnock vs Windradyne

The median house price is $725K in Cessnock and $730K in Windradyne, so Cessnock is the cheaper entry point, with Windradyne houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Windradyne leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.40%, compared with 4.19% in Cessnock, a gap of 0.21 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.8% in Cessnock and +8.1% in Windradyne, so recent momentum favours Cessnock, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Cessnock houses are +19.8% and Windradyne houses +25.8%, so Windradyne has compounded faster than Cessnock over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.2% in Cessnock and 1.9% in Windradyne, so landlords in Cessnock face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Cessnock is the bigger suburb, with a population of 16,300 against 3,309, roughly 4.9 times the size of Windradyne; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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