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Caulfield vs Sorrento

Property investment comparison - Caulfield, VIC 3162 vs Sorrento, VIC 3943

Head-to-head across core investment metrics: Caulfield wins 1, Sorrento wins 3. The better choice depends on whether you're optimising for cash flow, growth, affordability, or liquidity, the table below highlights the winner on each metric.

MetricCaulfieldSorrento
Median house price$1.9M$1.8M
Median unit price$810K-
Gross rental yield (houses)3.00%2.17%
Gross rental yield (units)-4.08%
1-year house growth-6.9%-0.9%estimate
3-year house growth+5.8%-
Vacancy rate2.5%1.6%
Population5,7482,013

Caulfield vs Sorrento: what the numbers say

The median house price is $1.9M in Caulfield and $1.8M in Sorrento, so Sorrento is the cheaper entry point, with Caulfield houses about 3% dearer.

On cash flow, Caulfield leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.00%, compared with 2.17% in Sorrento, a gap of 0.83 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -6.9% in Caulfield and -0.9% in Sorrento (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Sorrento, while Caulfield went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 1.6% in Sorrento and 2.5% in Caulfield, so landlords in Sorrento face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Caulfield is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,748 against 2,013, roughly 2.9 times the size of Sorrento; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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

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