Calderwood vs Charlestown

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.1M in Calderwood and $1.1M in Charlestown.

For units, Calderwood sits at a median of $720K against $730K in Charlestown, which makes Calderwood the more affordable unit market and Charlestown the pricier one.

On cash flow, Calderwood leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.00%, compared with 3.50% in Charlestown, a gap of 0.50 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +16.5% in Calderwood and +14.9% in Charlestown, so recent momentum favours Calderwood, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Calderwood houses are +22.6% and Charlestown houses +24.0%, so Charlestown has compounded faster than Calderwood over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.1% in Calderwood and 1.9% in Charlestown, so landlords in Calderwood face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Charlestown is the bigger suburb, with a population of 13,601 against 3,013, roughly 4.5 times the size of Calderwood; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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