Noosa Heads vs Sunshine Beach

The median house price is $2.5M in Noosa Heads and $2.9M in Sunshine Beach, so Noosa Heads is the cheaper entry point, with Sunshine Beach houses about 17% dearer.

On cash flow, Sunshine Beach leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.75%, compared with 2.64% in Noosa Heads, a gap of 0.11 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +6.4% in Noosa Heads and +9.9% in Sunshine Beach (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Sunshine Beach, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Sunshine Beach and 0.8% in Noosa Heads, so landlords in Sunshine Beach face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Noosa Heads is the bigger suburb, with a population of 5,120 against 2,480, roughly 2.1 times the size of Sunshine Beach; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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