Carlton North vs Fairhaven

The median house price is $1.5M in Carlton North and $1.5M in Fairhaven, so Fairhaven is the cheaper entry point, with Carlton North houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Carlton North sits at a median of $690K against $1.4M in Fairhaven, which makes Carlton North the more affordable unit market and Fairhaven the pricier one.

On cash flow, Carlton North leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.90%, compared with 1.69% in Fairhaven, a gap of 1.21 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -3.7% in Carlton North (an estimate) and -13.2% in Fairhaven (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Carlton North, while Fairhaven went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 0.6% in Carlton North and 3.2% in Fairhaven, so landlords in Carlton North face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Carlton North is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,177 against 390, roughly 16 times the size of Fairhaven; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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