Burnside vs Colonel Light Gardens

The median house price is $1.8M in Burnside and $1.7M in Colonel Light Gardens, so Colonel Light Gardens is the cheaper entry point, with Burnside houses about 6% dearer.

For units, Burnside sits at a median of $820K against $550K in Colonel Light Gardens, which makes Colonel Light Gardens the more affordable unit market and Burnside the pricier one.

On cash flow, Burnside leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.32%, compared with 2.15% in Colonel Light Gardens, a gap of 0.17 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +4.7% in Burnside and +15.2% in Colonel Light Gardens, so recent momentum favours Colonel Light Gardens, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Burnside houses are +42.5% and Colonel Light Gardens houses +34.5%, so Burnside has compounded faster than Colonel Light Gardens over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.6% in Colonel Light Gardens and 3.4% in Burnside, so landlords in Colonel Light Gardens face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Colonel Light Gardens is the bigger suburb, with a population of 3,311 against 3,060, larger than Burnside; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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