Cheltenham vs Modbury Heights

The median house price is $1.0M in Cheltenham and $985K in Modbury Heights, so Modbury Heights is the cheaper entry point, with Cheltenham houses about 3% dearer.

On cash flow, Modbury Heights leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.60%, compared with 2.79% in Cheltenham, a gap of 0.81 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +11.6% in Cheltenham and +14.1% in Modbury Heights, so recent momentum favours Modbury Heights, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Cheltenham houses are +26.3% and Modbury Heights houses +36.3%, so Modbury Heights has compounded faster than Cheltenham over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Modbury Heights and 1.6% in Cheltenham, so landlords in Modbury Heights face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Modbury Heights is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,995 against 2,236, roughly 3.1 times the size of Cheltenham; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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