Charlestown vs Garden Suburb

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.1M in Charlestown and $1.1M in Garden Suburb.

On cash flow, Garden Suburb leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.80%, compared with 3.50% in Charlestown, a gap of 0.30 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.9% in Charlestown and +11.5% in Garden Suburb, so recent momentum favours Charlestown, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Charlestown houses are +24.0% and Garden Suburb houses +27.4%, so Garden Suburb has compounded faster than Charlestown over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Garden Suburb and 1.9% in Charlestown, so landlords in Garden Suburb face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Charlestown is the bigger suburb, with a population of 13,601 against 1,959, roughly 7 times the size of Garden Suburb; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Garden Suburb for rental income, Charlestown for recent price momentum, Garden Suburb for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.