Saunders Beach vs Sun Valley

The median house price is $580K in Saunders Beach and $575K in Sun Valley, so Sun Valley is the cheaper entry point, with Saunders Beach houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Saunders Beach sits at a median of $415K against $295K in Sun Valley, which makes Sun Valley the more affordable unit market and Saunders Beach the pricier one.

On cash flow, Sun Valley leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 5.01%, compared with 3.87% in Saunders Beach, a gap of 1.14 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +15.4% in Saunders Beach and +15.7% in Sun Valley, so recent momentum favours Sun Valley, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Saunders Beach houses are +54.7% and Sun Valley houses +75.3%, so Sun Valley has compounded faster than Saunders Beach over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.5% in Sun Valley and 1.6% in Saunders Beach, so landlords in Sun Valley face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Sun Valley is the bigger suburb, with a population of 1,296 against 385, roughly 3.4 times the size of Saunders Beach; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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