Colonel Light Gardens vs West Beach

The median house price is $1.7M in Colonel Light Gardens and $1.6M in West Beach, so West Beach is the cheaper entry point, with Colonel Light Gardens houses about 5% dearer.

For units, Colonel Light Gardens sits at a median of $550K against $655K in West Beach, which makes Colonel Light Gardens the more affordable unit market and West Beach the pricier one.

On cash flow, West Beach leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.46%, compared with 2.15% in Colonel Light Gardens, a gap of 0.31 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +15.2% in Colonel Light Gardens and +11.1% in West Beach (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Colonel Light Gardens, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.6% in Colonel Light Gardens and 1.0% in West Beach, so landlords in Colonel Light Gardens face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

West Beach is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,175 against 3,311, larger than Colonel Light Gardens; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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