Carss Park vs Surry Hills

The median house price is $2.5M in Carss Park and $2.5M in Surry Hills, so Surry Hills is the cheaper entry point.

For units, Carss Park sits at a median of $1.0M against $860K in Surry Hills, which makes Surry Hills the more affordable unit market and Carss Park the pricier one.

On cash flow, Surry Hills leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.75%, compared with 2.13% in Carss Park, a gap of 0.62 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +1.4% in Carss Park (an estimate) and +4.2% in Surry Hills, so recent momentum favours Surry Hills, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 1.5% in Surry Hills and 5.9% in Carss Park, so landlords in Surry Hills face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Surry Hills is the bigger suburb, with a population of 15,828 against 1,265, roughly 13 times the size of Carss Park; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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