Scarborough vs Serpentine

The median house price is $1.4M in Scarborough and $1.4M in Serpentine, so Serpentine is the cheaper entry point, with Scarborough houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Scarborough sits at a median of $840K against $530K in Serpentine, which makes Serpentine the more affordable unit market and Scarborough the pricier one.

On cash flow, Scarborough leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.59%, compared with 3.46% in Serpentine, a gap of 0.13 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +14.8% in Scarborough (an estimate) and +19.2% in Serpentine, so recent momentum favours Serpentine, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 1.5% in Scarborough and 2.1% in Serpentine, so landlords in Scarborough face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Scarborough is the bigger suburb, with a population of 17,605 against 2,863, roughly 6 times the size of Serpentine; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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