Double your money with these Top 25 growth suburbs

Areas on Adelaide’s northern fringe, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and suburban Sydney dominate a new list of suburbs experiencing above-average price growth, where savvy property investors stand to double their money in 10 years or less.

The list has been compiled by Tim McIntyre - the Property Editor at Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper and Realestatecom.au’s NSW Editor - using PropTrack data.

The choices are fascinating, as they provide options for strong growth investment locations in a wide variety of price ranges - all the way from a bargain basement $320,000 to a cool $7,000,000.

The top 25 locations

The list is dominated by affordable suburbs in the Elizabeth area on Adelaide’s northern fringes.

These make up 8 of the 9 entries from South Australia.

Four localities on Queensland’s laid-back but pricey Sunshine Coast also get the nod, as do four locations in Sydney - ranging from semi-rural Galston in the city’s north-west to ritzy harbourside Rose Bay in the inner East.

Two Brisbane suburbs - Robertson and Seven Hills - also make the cut.

However, only two unit markets made the list - Waverley in Sydney's Eastern suburbs and Highland Park in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Surprisingly, no suburbs in booming Western Australia made the Top 25, nor were there any entries from Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory.

How are the entries on the list chosen

Tim McIntyre says he came up with his Top 25 growth suburbs list this way:

First, he looked at the latest PropTrack growth data, which shows that there are more than 100 suburbs in Australia that have 10% or higher average annual price growth.

“But looking through the list, I can see some are more consistent than others,” he says.

“Some have had price corrections over the past 10 years, so I filter those out, and I get 60 suburbs.”

Getting rid of price corrections would have ruled out most suburbs in Perth and WA, where prices tended to flatline and then often went backwards between about 2014 and 2022.

“Next, I note the majority of these suburbs have ‘average vendor discounts’, which means sellers are dropping prices in order to make a deal,” Tim McIntyre says.

“That’s either a sign of some market weakness, or an indication that vendors are overestimating their own value and having to drop prices during their selling campaign.

“Either way, let’s filter those out too.”

That leaves just 25 suburbs in Australia offering 10% yearly returns on investment, across multiple price brackets.

The rationale for the list

Realestate.com.au’s Tim McIntyre compiled the list as a riposte to the oft-heard claim by property ‘experts’ that real estate prices double in Australia every seven to 10 years.

“Usually, they’re trying to sell you something,” he says.

“So, while they act as though that’s a rule of thumb for all property, it’s a bit more complicated.”

As an example, Mr McIntyre references his own purchase of a one-bedroom Gold Coast apartment in 2015 for $159,000.

“In the 10 years since, the unit has more than doubled in value, performing in line with the general Surfers Paradise unit market,” he says.

“But the previous decade was a different story.

“Just ask the vendor that I purchased the unit from.

“She had last paid $174,000 for the property in 2000,” Tim McIntyre says.

“In 15 years, she lost $15,000 in value.”

So yes, Australian residential property can double in 10 years or less, but as Realestate.com.au’s Tim McIntyre says, it all depends “on location, economic conditions and whether the market is at a peak or trough.”