Athelstone vs O'Sullivan Beach

On cash flow, O'Sullivan Beach leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.75%, compared with 3.30% in Athelstone, a gap of 0.45 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.1% in Athelstone and +12.0% in O'Sullivan Beach, so recent momentum favours Athelstone, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Athelstone houses are +41.1% and O'Sullivan Beach houses +41.9%, so O'Sullivan Beach has compounded faster than Athelstone over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Athelstone and 1.4% in O'Sullivan Beach, so landlords in Athelstone face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Athelstone is the bigger suburb, with a population of 9,601 against 1,844, roughly 5 times the size of O'Sullivan Beach; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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