Wadalba vs Yamba

The median house price is $980K in Wadalba and $985K in Yamba, so Wadalba is the cheaper entry point, with Yamba houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Wadalba leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.00%, compared with 3.59% in Yamba, a gap of 0.41 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +7.0% in Wadalba and +4.7% in Yamba, so recent momentum favours Wadalba, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Wadalba houses are +13.3% and Yamba houses +11.9%, so Wadalba has compounded faster than Yamba over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Wadalba and 1.2% in Yamba, so landlords in Wadalba face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Yamba is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,405 against 4,204, larger than Wadalba; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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