Middle Dural vs Willoughby

The median house price is $3.7M in Middle Dural and $3.6M in Willoughby, so Willoughby is the cheaper entry point, with Middle Dural houses about 2% dearer.

For units, Middle Dural sits at a median of $1.1M against $1.5M in Willoughby, which makes Middle Dural the more affordable unit market and Willoughby the pricier one.

On cash flow, Willoughby leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 1.94%, compared with 1.49% in Middle Dural, a gap of 0.45 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -2.1% in Middle Dural and +1.1% in Willoughby, so recent momentum favours Willoughby, while Middle Dural went backwards.

Looking back three years, Middle Dural houses are +1.6% and Willoughby houses +7.5%, so Willoughby has compounded faster than Middle Dural over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 2.2% in Willoughby and 6.9% in Middle Dural, so landlords in Willoughby face less competition for tenants.

Willoughby is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,124 against 1,040, roughly 7 times the size of Middle Dural; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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