Burbank vs Sunshine Beach

The median house price is $3.2M in Burbank and $2.9M in Sunshine Beach, so Sunshine Beach is the cheaper entry point, with Burbank houses about 11% dearer.

For units, Burbank sits at a median of $765K against $1.3M in Sunshine Beach, which makes Burbank the more affordable unit market and Sunshine Beach the pricier one.

On cash flow, Sunshine Beach leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.75%, compared with 1.56% in Burbank, a gap of 1.19 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +0.3% in Burbank (an estimate) and +9.9% in Sunshine Beach (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Sunshine Beach, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Sunshine Beach and 1.5% in Burbank, so landlords in Sunshine Beach face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Sunshine Beach is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,480 against 1,051, roughly 2.4 times the size of Burbank; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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