Cooran vs Port Douglas

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $960K in Cooran and $960K in Port Douglas.

For units, Cooran sits at a median of $750K against $385K in Port Douglas, which makes Port Douglas the more affordable unit market and Cooran the pricier one.

On cash flow, Port Douglas leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.05%, compared with 3.51% in Cooran, a gap of 0.54 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +8.9% in Cooran (an estimate) and +4.4% in Port Douglas, so recent momentum favours Cooran, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Port Douglas and 1.1% in Cooran, so landlords in Port Douglas face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Port Douglas is the bigger suburb, with a population of 3,650 against 1,756, roughly 2.1 times the size of Cooran; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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