Ellalong vs Old Bar

The median house price is $825K in Ellalong and $830K in Old Bar, so Ellalong is the cheaper entry point, with Old Bar houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Ellalong sits at a median of $470K against $550K in Old Bar, which makes Ellalong the more affordable unit market and Old Bar the pricier one.

On cash flow, Old Bar leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.15%, compared with 3.85% in Ellalong, a gap of 0.30 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +10.2% in Ellalong and +6.7% in Old Bar, so recent momentum favours Ellalong, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Ellalong houses are +15.6% and Old Bar houses +7.9%, so Ellalong has compounded faster than Old Bar over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.9% in Old Bar and 2.1% in Ellalong, so landlords in Old Bar face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Old Bar is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,126 against 1,351, roughly 3.8 times the size of Ellalong; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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