Hawley Beach vs Mount Nelson

The median house price is $1.1M in Hawley Beach and $985K in Mount Nelson, so Mount Nelson is the cheaper entry point, with Hawley Beach houses about 7% dearer.

For units, Hawley Beach sits at a median of $690K against $560K in Mount Nelson, which makes Mount Nelson the more affordable unit market and Hawley Beach the pricier one.

On cash flow, Mount Nelson leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.29%, compared with 3.23% in Hawley Beach, a gap of 0.06 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.2% in Hawley Beach and +7.1% in Mount Nelson, so recent momentum favours Hawley Beach, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Hawley Beach houses are +23.5% and Mount Nelson houses +1.4%, so Hawley Beach has compounded faster than Mount Nelson over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.4% in Hawley Beach and 0.8% in Mount Nelson, so landlords in Hawley Beach face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Mount Nelson is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,749 against 590, roughly 4.7 times the size of Hawley Beach; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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