Collaroy vs Kirribilli

The median house price is $3.8M in Collaroy and $3.7M in Kirribilli, so Kirribilli is the cheaper entry point, with Collaroy houses about 1% dearer.

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

On cash flow, Collaroy leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.76%, compared with 2.20% in Kirribilli, a gap of 0.56 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +1.9% in Collaroy and -17.7% in Kirribilli (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Collaroy, while Kirribilli went backwards.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Kirribilli and 2.2% in Collaroy, so landlords in Kirribilli face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Collaroy is the bigger suburb, with a population of 7,944 against 3,629, roughly 2.2 times the size of Kirribilli; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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