Cranbrook vs Stanthorpe

The median house price is $625K in Cranbrook and $615K in Stanthorpe, so Stanthorpe is the cheaper entry point, with Cranbrook houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Cranbrook sits at a median of $380K against $490K in Stanthorpe, which makes Cranbrook the more affordable unit market and Stanthorpe the pricier one.

On cash flow, Cranbrook leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.76%, compared with 4.26% in Stanthorpe, a gap of 0.50 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +16.6% in Cranbrook and +17.1% in Stanthorpe, so recent momentum favours Stanthorpe, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Cranbrook houses are +82.4% and Stanthorpe houses +46.0%, so Cranbrook has compounded faster than Stanthorpe over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is the same in both, at 0.5%.

Cranbrook is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,844 against 5,286, larger than Stanthorpe; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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