Moresby vs Thornlie

The median house price is $870K in Moresby and $865K in Thornlie, so Thornlie is the cheaper entry point, with Moresby houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Moresby sits at a median of $805K against $555K in Thornlie, which makes Thornlie the more affordable unit market and Moresby the pricier one.

On cash flow, Thornlie leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.34%, compared with 3.22% in Moresby, a gap of 1.12 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +10.8% in Moresby (an estimate) and +22.2% in Thornlie (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Thornlie, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Thornlie and 1.0% in Moresby, so landlords in Thornlie face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Thornlie is the bigger suburb, with a population of 23,665 against 944, roughly 25 times the size of Moresby; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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