Heddon Greta vs Thornton

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $885K in Heddon Greta and $885K in Thornton.

On cash flow, Heddon Greta leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.09%, compared with 4.03% in Thornton, a gap of 0.06 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +18.7% in Heddon Greta and +9.1% in Thornton, so recent momentum favours Heddon Greta, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Heddon Greta houses are +29.7% and Thornton houses +13.3%, so Heddon Greta has compounded faster than Thornton over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Thornton and 1.8% in Heddon Greta, so landlords in Thornton face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Thornton is the bigger suburb, with a population of 10,690 against 2,838, roughly 3.8 times the size of Heddon Greta; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Heddon Greta for rental income, Heddon Greta for recent price momentum, Thornton for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.