Cairns North vs Pacific Haven

The median house price is $660K in Cairns North and $665K in Pacific Haven, so Cairns North is the cheaper entry point, with Pacific Haven houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Cairns North sits at a median of $450K against $555K in Pacific Haven, which makes Cairns North the more affordable unit market and Pacific Haven the pricier one.

On cash flow, Cairns North leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.70%, compared with 4.54% in Pacific Haven, a gap of 0.16 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +13.7% in Cairns North (an estimate) and +2.7% in Pacific Haven (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Cairns North, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Cairns North and 3.6% in Pacific Haven, so landlords in Cairns North face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Cairns North is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,334 against 778, roughly 7 times the size of Pacific Haven; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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