Caloundra West vs Durack

The median house price is $1.0M in Caloundra West and $1M in Durack, so Durack is the cheaper entry point, with Caloundra West houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Caloundra West sits at a median of $780K against $735K in Durack, which makes Durack the more affordable unit market and Caloundra West the pricier one.

On cash flow, Caloundra West leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.98%, compared with 3.54% in Durack, a gap of 0.44 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +17.5% in Caloundra West and +17.3% in Durack, so recent momentum favours Caloundra West, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Caloundra West houses are +34.2% and Durack houses +54.3%, so Durack has compounded faster than Caloundra West over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Durack and 1.0% in Caloundra West, so landlords in Durack face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Durack is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,788 against 7,270, larger than Caloundra West; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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