According to
realestate.com.au, investor Sam Gordon, who has built a portfolio of more than 150 properties, has named five cities and towns he believes will deliver "big growth" even as the broader national market cools. Gordon's call lands at a moment when the broader property market is being described as a downturn, with buyer sentiment turning cautious in several capital cities.
The Five Markets Gordon Is Backing
This matters because portfolio-scale investors like Gordon typically move on cycle timing rather than headlines. With over 150 properties under management, his calls reflect experience built up across many markets simultaneously, not a single purchase decision. When an investor of that scale nominates specific towns and cities as counter-cyclical opportunities, it signals where he sees rental demand, population growth or infrastructure spending outpacing current price levels. It is also a reminder that "downturn" headlines are usually built from capital city aggregate data, which can mask sharp divergence at the suburb and regional level.
For everyday buyers, the practical takeaway is not to blindly follow a single investor's picks, but to understand the framework behind them: affordability headroom, population inflows, and supply pipelines that lag demand. Buyers weighing a purchase in a smaller city or regional centre should stress-test any "boom" claim against local vacancy rates, days-on-market figures and recent sales volumes before committing, rather than relying on a headline alone.
Why Counter-Cyclical Calls Matter Right Now
Analysts and investors reading these figures alongside broader macro market context are increasingly treating the cash rate as the anchor variable, not the postcode. A held cash rate keeps borrowing costs elevated relative to the ultra-low settings of the early 2020s, which pushes cautious buyers toward markets with lower entry prices and stronger yield, exactly the profile smaller cities and regional towns tend to offer over blue-chip capital city suburbs.
REAStats reporting points to a widening gap opening up between markets, with some Western Australian suburbs showing comparatively strong annual growth while parts of Victoria's middle-ring areas remain largely flat.
For investors, this means due diligence now needs to happen at the suburb level, not the state or capital city level. A "national downturn" framing can cause otherwise sound regional or outer-metro opportunities to be dismissed by buyers who are reading headline figures rather than local data.
Background: Tax, Population and the Long Game
Any discussion of where to buy for growth eventually runs into the tax treatment of any eventual sale. Investors backing five-year or ten-year growth stories need to understand how gains will be taxed on exit, covered in detail in APF's guide to Capital Gains Tax on Australian Property. Treasury's Intergenerational Report, cited by World Property Forum, projects Australia's population nearing 40 million by 2066, with an economy more than double its current size, but it also warns the housing divide will deepen. That long-run population growth is the demand-side backbone behind bets like Gordon's on emerging and mid-sized markets.
Supply is moving too, if unevenly. Adelaide's approval of five new high-rise developments, reported separately by realestate.com.au, shows some capital cities are actively responding to demand pressure with new stock, which could temper growth in specific pockets even as broader affordability gaps persist elsewhere.
What This Means for Buyers and Investors
For first-home buyers priced out of capital city blue-chip suburbs, Gordon's picks reinforce a broader trend already visible in the data: affordability-driven demand is spilling into secondary cities and regional centres. REAStats reporting on Larrakeyah's $710,000 median and 56% clearance rate shows how Tier 3 markets are becoming affordability anchors as 101 suburbs nationally risk dropping off homebuyer shortlists under rate pressure. Buyers who cannot compete in Sydney or Melbourne are increasingly forced to widen their search radius, and that widening search is exactly what feeds growth in the markets Gordon is backing.
For existing investors, the message is to review portfolios against local, not national, data before assuming a downturn justifies selling. Someone holding property in a market Gordon has flagged as resilient may find continued rental demand and price support even as national sentiment gauges turn negative. Conversely, investors in markets not on any resilience list should be honest about vacancy trends and local supply pipelines rather than assuming a rising tide will lift all boats.
Sellers weighing timing should also take note. If growth is genuinely concentrated in five specific markets rather than spread nationally, vendors outside those markets may need to adjust price expectations downward, while those inside them may have room to hold out for stronger offers. Buyers, sellers and investors alike should treat single-investor market calls as a prompt for research, not a substitute for it, cross-checking any named market against clearance rates, vacancy data and population figures before acting.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or property investment advice.
