Kalaru vs Nelson Bay

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.0M in Kalaru and $1.0M in Nelson Bay.

For units, Kalaru sits at a median of $590K against $735K in Nelson Bay, which makes Kalaru the more affordable unit market and Nelson Bay the pricier one.

On cash flow, Nelson Bay leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.75%, compared with 3.11% in Kalaru, a gap of 0.64 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +8.9% in Kalaru and -4.0% in Nelson Bay, so recent momentum favours Kalaru, while Nelson Bay went backwards.

Looking back three years, Kalaru houses are +4.5% and Nelson Bay houses +5.8%, so Nelson Bay has compounded faster than Kalaru over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.3% in Nelson Bay and 5.4% in Kalaru, so landlords in Nelson Bay face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Nelson Bay is the bigger suburb, with a population of 6,141 against 820, roughly 7 times the size of Kalaru; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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