Charlestown vs Pelican

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

On cash flow, Pelican leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.70%, compared with 3.50% in Charlestown, a gap of 0.20 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.9% in Charlestown and +8.6% in Pelican, so recent momentum favours Charlestown, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Charlestown houses are +24.0% and Pelican houses +34.2%, so Pelican has compounded faster than Charlestown over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.9% in Charlestown and 5.5% in Pelican, so landlords in Charlestown 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 874, roughly 16 times the size of Pelican; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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