Carlyle vs Horsham

The median house price is $480K in Carlyle and $475K in Horsham, so Horsham is the cheaper entry point, with Carlyle houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Carlyle sits at a median of $320K against $400K in Horsham, which makes Carlyle the more affordable unit market and Horsham the pricier one.

On cash flow, Carlyle leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 6.66%, compared with 5.00% in Horsham, a gap of 1.66 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -9.8% in Carlyle (an estimate) and +18.1% in Horsham, so recent momentum favours Horsham, while Carlyle went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 0.1% in Horsham and 2.0% in Carlyle, so landlords in Horsham face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Horsham is the bigger suburb, with a population of 15,134 against 82, roughly 185 times the size of Carlyle; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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