Fern Bay vs Sunshine

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.1M in Fern Bay and $1.1M in Sunshine.

For units, Fern Bay sits at a median of $815K against $590K in Sunshine, which makes Sunshine the more affordable unit market and Fern Bay the pricier one.

On cash flow, Sunshine leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.86%, compared with 3.50% in Fern Bay, a gap of 0.36 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.5% in Fern Bay and +11.3% in Sunshine, so recent momentum favours Sunshine, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Fern Bay houses are +10.6% and Sunshine houses +13.9%, so Sunshine has compounded faster than Fern Bay over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.0% in Fern Bay and 6.3% in Sunshine, so landlords in Fern Bay face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Fern Bay is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,046 against 475, roughly 9 times the size of Sunshine; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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