Cessnock vs Maclean

The median house price is $675K in Cessnock and $680K in Maclean, so Cessnock is the cheaper entry point, with Maclean houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Cessnock sits at a median of $445K against $440K in Maclean, which makes Maclean the more affordable unit market and Cessnock the pricier one.

On cash flow, Cessnock leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 5.35%, compared with 4.28% in Maclean, a gap of 1.07 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -3.6% in Cessnock (an estimate) and +5.3% in Maclean (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Maclean, while Cessnock went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Maclean and 2.0% in Cessnock, so landlords in Maclean 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 2,778, roughly 6 times the size of Maclean; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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