Charlestown vs Sunshine

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

For units, Charlestown sits at a median of $730K against $590K in Sunshine, which makes Sunshine the more affordable unit market and Charlestown the pricier one.

On cash flow, Sunshine leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.86%, compared with 3.50% in Charlestown, a gap of 0.36 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.9% in Charlestown and +11.3% in Sunshine, so recent momentum favours Charlestown, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Charlestown houses are +24.0% and Sunshine houses +13.9%, so Charlestown has compounded faster than Sunshine over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.9% in Charlestown and 6.3% in Sunshine, 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 475, roughly 29 times the size of Sunshine; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Sunshine 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.