Property Investment

John McGrath Names 10 Queensland Suburbs Tipped to Buck Housing Downturn

By Twin·@TwinTowerCity·24 Oct 2026

This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Content is for informational purposes only.

REA Group's John McGrath has named ten Queensland suburbs as recovery plays, a call that lines up with REAStats data showing Queensland and Western Australia growth corridors materially outpacing Melbourne and Sydney's established blue-chip tiers.

Key Takeaways

West End (8.8% growth) and Indooroopilly (8.5% growth) in Queensland are outpacing Toorak (4.5%) and Kew (4.4%) in Melbourne's established blue-chip suburbs
Nedlands and South Perth in WA posted 15% and 13.8% annual growth respectively, clearing in 15-17 days versus Port Macquarie's 48-day and Ballina's 45-day cycles in regional NSW
Sydney's prestige tier remains efficient on clearance (Surry Hills 73%, Randwick 73.5%, Kirribilli 72.5%) despite a 24% year-on-year drop in auction volumes reported by Australian Property Forum
Mandurah's $550,000 median with 10.5% growth offers a materially lower entry point than any comparable capital-city suburb, though liquidity and legal terms differ by state

John McGrath's call to buy into ten Queensland suburbs before the next upswing, published by REA Group on 24 October 2026, named Beenleigh, Caboolture, Jindalee, Sandgate, Palm Beach, Toowoomba, Maryborough, Nambour, Charters Towers and Cairns North as the suburbs tipped to buck the downturn. Separately, REAStats data shows West End values climbing 8.8% annually and Indooroopilly posting an 8.5% gain — both outpacing Toorak's 4.5% and Kew's 4.4% growth in Melbourne's established east. The same week, McGrath also named five Sydney suburbs and two Geelong-region waterfront pockets as recovery plays, underscoring an interstate rotation among buyers chasing growth outside the capital-city prestige tier.

Queensland's Growth Premium Over Melbourne

The suburb-level numbers support McGrath's thesis more than they contradict it. West End sits on a median of $1.35 million with 8.8% annual growth, a 22-day selling cycle and a 62% auction clearance rate — tight enough to suggest genuine buyer competition rather than a one-off result. Indooroopilly, at a $1.38 million median, is moving at a near-identical 8.5% clip with a 62.5% clearance rate and 23 days on market. Maroochydore, cheaper again at $1.05 million, posts the same 8.5% growth figure but with a softer 54% clearance rate and 28 days on market, suggesting the coastal-growth corridor is broader than any single suburb.

Set against Melbourne's inner-east, the contrast is stark. Toorak's $2.8 million median has delivered 4.5% growth over the past year despite a 72% clearance rate, and Prahran's $1.55 million median is up just 3.9% with a 69% clearance rate. Both suburbs are still transacting efficiently — clearance rates in the high-60s and 70s signal depth of demand — but the capital growth McGrath is pointing interstate buyers toward in Queensland is running close to double what Melbourne's premium postcodes are returning.

Western Australia's Quiet Outperformance

Queensland is not the only growth corridor out-pacing the southern capitals. Nedlands has recorded 15% annual growth with a 15-day selling cycle and a 65.5% clearance rate, while South Perth has posted 13.8% growth, clearing in just 17 days at a 63.5% clearance rate. Mandurah, at the more affordable end with a $550,000 median, is still growing at 10.5% annually with a 56% clearance rate — an entry point well below anything comparable in Sydney or Melbourne.

Western Australia's Nedlands and South Perth posted annual growth of 15% and 13.8% respectively, more than triple Toorak's 4.5% gain, while clearing in 15 to 17 days compared with Port Macquarie's 48-day average and Ballina's 45-day cycle on the NSW coast.

That liquidity gap matters as much as the growth differential. A buyer chasing coastal lifestyle exposure in regional NSW is tying up capital for roughly three times longer than an equivalent purchase in Perth's inner-river suburbs, with a weaker clearance rate on exit. Measured against the decades of boom-bust cycles catalogued in historical Australian property bubble analysis, WA's current growth phase looks more like an early-cycle rotation than a speculative spike, which is consistent with the shorter days-on-market figures rather than a blow-off top.

Sydney's Prestige Split Tests Interstate Appetite

Sydney itself is sending mixed signals that complicate any simple interstate-versus-capital narrative. A Surry Hills terrace sold for $1.945 million after a 53-bid auction battle that drew a 30-person crowd, according to REA Group, even as Australian Property Forum reports Sydney-wide auction volumes down 24% year-on-year and Surry Hills' own median value off 11.2% over twelve months. At the top end, a Mosman home passed in for $9.85 million with only one registered bidder, according to SMH Property.

REAStats suburb data confirms the split is real rather than anecdotal. Surry Hills carries a 73% clearance rate on a $1.92 million median, Randwick sits at 73.5% on $2.4 million, and Kirribilli clears at 72.5% on $2.65 million — all comfortably ahead of Queensland's growth suburbs on clearance, even if trailing on annual price movement. For interstate buyers, that means Sydney's blue-chip tier still absorbs stock efficiently when priced correctly, but the entry cost is two to three times higher than the Queensland and WA suburbs McGrath is promoting, with far less headline growth to show for it over the past twelve months.

Background: Contract Terms Differ Once You Cross State Lines

Buyers acting on interstate growth calls need to treat the legal mechanics of each state separately, not as a single national process. Understanding the Contract of Sale is the starting point, since disclosure obligations, cooling-off rights and finance clauses are not uniform between NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. Buyers unfamiliar with a target suburb's local agents, building standards or comparable sales history are also the group most exposed when a market is moving quickly — the buyer's agent model exists largely to close that information gap for exactly this kind of out-of-state purchase.

This matters more in a market where clearance rates diverge as sharply as they currently do. A Sydney purchaser relying on local market instincts to evaluate a Maroochydore or Nedlands listing is operating without the comparable-sales context they would have at home, and the stakes rise when a $2 million-plus Sydney equity base is being redeployed into a market with a different settlement timeline and a different reserve-price culture.

What the Data Signals Near Term

The combined picture — Queensland growth near 8.5-8.8%, WA growth between 10.5% and 15%, and Melbourne's premium suburbs stuck near 4% — gives agents a genuine data point to put in front of vendors and buyers weighing a move, rather than a marketing line. For vendors in Toorak, Kew or Prahran, the clearance rates remain strong enough that pricing discipline, not suburb selection, is the bigger lever on outcome. For buyers with capital to deploy, the days-on-market and clearance-rate combination in South Perth, Nedlands and West End points to markets absorbing stock faster than Port Macquarie or Ballina, with the RBA cash rate sitting at 4.60% keeping finance costs a constant constraint on how much of that growth differential buyers can actually capture before serviceability limits bite.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Queensland suburbs did John McGrath recommend buying into?▾

John McGrath named ten Queensland suburbs tipped to buck the housing downturn before the next upswing. These suburbs are Beenleigh, Caboolture, Jindalee, Sandgate, Palm Beach, Toowoomba, Maryborough, Nambour, Charters Towers, and Cairns North. His picks align with an interstate buyer trend seeking capital growth outside traditional capital-city prestige markets.

How does property growth in Brisbane compare to Melbourne's prestige suburbs?▾

Data shows Brisbane suburbs are outperforming Melbourne's inner-east in annual price growth. Brisbane's West End rose 8.8% with a $1.35 million median, and Indooroopilly increased 8.5% with a $1.38 million median. In contrast, Melbourne's prestige suburbs experienced slower growth, with Toorak rising 4.5% on a $2.8 million median and Prahran increasing by 3.9%.

How are Western Australia property markets performing compared to the east coast?▾

Western Australian growth corridors are significantly outpacing eastern capital cities. Nedlands recorded 15% annual growth with homes selling in 15 days, while South Perth posted 13.8% growth with a 17-day selling cycle. Additionally, Mandurah recorded 10.5% annual growth with an affordable $550,000 median price, providing an entry point well below comparable locations in Sydney or Melbourne.

What are the current property market figures for Maroochydore?▾

According to REAStats data, Maroochydore has an entry median price of $1.05 million. The suburb has recorded an annual growth rate of 8.5%, matching Indooroopilly. Properties in Maroochydore spend an average of 28 days on the market, and the suburb currently records an auction clearance rate of 54%.