The most successful property investors that I know have some features in common and making decisions based on research is one of the key ones.

But those people are relatively rare.

It seems to me, from observing the behaviour of investors for the past four decades, that more people make investment decisions based on media soundbites than on genuine research.

Far too many people are leaping recklessly into the Perth property market because mainstream media keeps telling them that prices are booming and will keep on booming, backed by commentary from real estate people who have a vested interest in prolonging the Perth boom for as long as possible.

At Hotspotting, we think this media soundbite approach is fraught with peril and that many of the people piling into the Perth market at the moment will regret their decisions, made in haste without proper due diligence.

It’s a reflection of those views that the new edition of the National Top 10 Best Buys report does not include any locations in Perth.

Based on detailed research, we think this market has peaked and will not be the national leader on price growth in 2024, as many are predicting – or hoping.

We think there are other, better places for people to be putting their money – safer, less volatile, less heated markets with good potential for capital growth.

Our choices for good locations to buy in 2024 are based on research-based knowledge of the key trends that are driving demand in the best locations across Australia.

We’re not focused on short-term sugar-hit gains – rather we’re focussed on places we think will do well in the medium to long term.

We base our choices on economic factors, on demographic trends and on the locations of influence from big infrastructure developments.

At Hotspotting, we are constantly on the look-out for evidence of change in property market trends and in individual locations.

Places that have been weak performers on capital growth in the past can become the leaders of the future, because something major has changed in that market – often caused by the development of major new infrastructure.

Sometimes it’s a significant demographic shift – such as the trend which has seen growing numbers of people leaving the biggest cities and moving to smaller cities or to regional areas, in search of a different and more affordable lifestyle, enabled by technology.

More recently, we have observed a surge in demand for units and townhouses by a range of different buyer cohorts, for a host of different reasons – and this is changing one of the dominant paradigms of real estate – that houses outperform units on capital growth.

All of these factors are reflected in our new edition of the National Top 10 Best Buys report.

It’s our most popular report, because it’s the one that considers all the events and trends happening across Australia – and identifies the markets with the best prospects for future capital growth.