Emerald Beach vs Tumbi Umbi

The median house price is $1.0M in Emerald Beach and $1.0M in Tumbi Umbi, so Tumbi Umbi is the cheaper entry point, with Emerald Beach houses about 1% dearer.

On cash flow, Tumbi Umbi leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.80%, compared with 3.50% in Emerald Beach, a gap of 0.30 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved -1.4% in Emerald Beach and +6.2% in Tumbi Umbi, so recent momentum favours Tumbi Umbi, while Emerald Beach went backwards.

Looking back three years, Emerald Beach houses are +14.5% and Tumbi Umbi houses +18.4%, so Tumbi Umbi has compounded faster than Emerald Beach over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.4% in Tumbi Umbi and 2.0% in Emerald Beach, so landlords in Tumbi Umbi face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Tumbi Umbi is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,369 against 2,677, roughly 2.0 times the size of Emerald Beach; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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