Oyster Bay vs Thornleigh

The median house price is $1.9M in Oyster Bay and $1.9M in Thornleigh, so Thornleigh is the cheaper entry point.

On cash flow, Oyster Bay leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.95%, compared with 2.52% in Thornleigh, a gap of 0.43 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +0.0% in Oyster Bay and -4.7% in Thornleigh, so recent momentum favours Oyster Bay, while Thornleigh went backwards.

Looking back three years, Oyster Bay houses are +16.7% and Thornleigh houses -4.4%, so Oyster Bay has compounded faster than Thornleigh over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Thornleigh and 1.8% in Oyster Bay, so landlords in Thornleigh face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Thornleigh is the bigger suburb, with a population of 8,898 against 5,689, larger than Oyster Bay; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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