Clareville vs Collaroy

The median house price is $3.7M in Clareville and $3.8M in Collaroy, so Clareville is the cheaper entry point.

For units, Clareville sits at a median of $1.1M against $1.3M in Collaroy, which makes Clareville the more affordable unit market and Collaroy the pricier one.

On cash flow, Collaroy leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.76%, compared with 2.08% in Clareville, a gap of 0.68 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -1.5% in Clareville and +1.9% in Collaroy, so recent momentum favours Collaroy, while Clareville went backwards.

Looking back three years, Clareville houses are +4.6% and Collaroy houses +0.5%, so Clareville has compounded faster than Collaroy over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 2.2% in Collaroy and 11.1% in Clareville, so landlords in Collaroy face less competition for tenants.

Collaroy is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,944 against 822, roughly 10 times the size of Clareville; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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