Garden Suburb vs Sunshine

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

On cash flow, Sunshine leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.86%, compared with 3.80% in Garden Suburb, a gap of 0.06 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +11.5% in Garden Suburb and +11.3% in Sunshine, so recent momentum favours Garden Suburb, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Garden Suburb houses are +27.4% and Sunshine houses +13.9%, so Garden Suburb has compounded faster than Sunshine over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.4% in Garden Suburb and 6.3% in Sunshine, so landlords in Garden Suburb face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Garden Suburb is the bigger suburb, with a population of 1,959 against 475, roughly 4.1 times the size of Sunshine; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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