Pacific Heights vs Port Douglas

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $960K in Pacific Heights and $960K in Port Douglas.

For units, Pacific Heights sits at a median of $1.1M against $385K in Port Douglas, which makes Port Douglas the more affordable unit market and Pacific Heights the pricier one.

On cash flow, Pacific Heights leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 4.30%, compared with 4.05% in Port Douglas, a gap of 0.25 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +11.1% in Pacific Heights and +4.4% in Port Douglas, so recent momentum favours Pacific Heights, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Pacific Heights houses are +25.1% and Port Douglas houses +6.9%, so Pacific Heights has compounded faster than Port Douglas over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.7% in Port Douglas and 4.4% in Pacific Heights, so landlords in Port Douglas face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Port Douglas is the bigger suburb, with a population of 3,650 against 1,111, roughly 3.3 times the size of Pacific Heights; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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