Balmoral vs Castaways Beach

The median house price is $2.1M in Balmoral and $2.1M in Castaways Beach, so Castaways Beach is the cheaper entry point, with Balmoral houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Balmoral sits at a median of $965K against $4.9M in Castaways Beach, which makes Balmoral the more affordable unit market and Castaways Beach the pricier one.

On cash flow, Castaways Beach leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.78%, compared with 2.60% in Balmoral, a gap of 0.18 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +8.3% in Balmoral and +6.2% in Castaways Beach, so recent momentum favours Balmoral, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Balmoral houses are +42.8% and Castaways Beach houses +14.4%, so Balmoral has compounded faster than Castaways Beach over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Balmoral and 2.5% in Castaways Beach, so landlords in Balmoral face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Balmoral is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,173 against 683, roughly 6 times the size of Castaways Beach; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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