You don’t have to be super rich or invest $1 million to make big capital gains in residential real estate: you just need to follow Hotspotting’s signature report, the National Top 10 Best Buys report.

Those who followed the tips in our report of a year ago could have made close to $100,000 in capital gains spending as little as $400,000 – or $180,000 in gains after investing $630,000.

In December 2023 we published our National Top Best Buys reports for Summer 2023-34. Our top 10 locations for investors to consider covered a wide range of price points, from less than $300,000 and above $1 million. 

And all 10 regions suggested in that report a year ago include suburbs which have delivered spectacular gains in the past 12 months. Many rose by more than 20% in 12 months, compared with the national average rise of just 5.5%.

In Bunbury in Western Australia, you would have paid below $350,000 for the typical house in suburbs like Carey Park and Withers – and seen your investment grow by $90,000 or more, following annual growth between 25% to 30%.

Even a modest investment of less than $300,000 for a small unit in Carlton in inner-city Melbourne would have shown excellent capital growth, out-performing the generally flat Melbourne market.

Those with more to spend late in 2023 could have achieved over $200,000 in capital growth by buying houses at the median price in locations such as Punchbowl in Sydney and Carrara on the Gold Coast, or apartments in Elizabeth Bay in Sydney.

More mid-range were units in Kangaroo Point in Brisbane or at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast; and houses in Tea Tree Gully in Adelaide or Fairy Meadow in Wollongong – all delivering $100,000 or more in gains for those who bought around the median price for those locations.

The average situation arising out of our National Top 10 Best Buys report a year ago was investing $640,000 and achieving a 21% rise in value, which means capital gains of $146,000.

We’ve recently published our National Top 10 Best Buys report with our selections to launch 2025.

And, in keeping with our tradition of seeking to identify the future hotspots – which means locations with potential for strong price growth, but before those markets rise strongly and become competitive – the new edition of Best Buys does not include already hot markets like Perth, Adelaide and key regional markets in Queensland. 

We’ve identified places where you can buy sensibly, with due diligence, and look forward to excellent capital growth over time.