Mount Warrigal vs Paterson

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $950K in Mount Warrigal and $950K in Paterson.

For units, Mount Warrigal sits at a median of $810K against $465K in Paterson, which makes Paterson the more affordable unit market and Mount Warrigal the pricier one.

On cash flow, Mount Warrigal leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.05%, compared with 3.56% in Paterson, a gap of 0.49 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +7.2% in Mount Warrigal and -2.7% in Paterson, so recent momentum favours Mount Warrigal, while Paterson went backwards.

Looking back three years, Mount Warrigal houses are +24.4% and Paterson houses +10.7%, so Mount Warrigal has compounded faster than Paterson over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Mount Warrigal and 1.6% in Paterson, so landlords in Mount Warrigal face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Mount Warrigal is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,880 against 960, roughly 5 times the size of Paterson; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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