_{1.00 – Dave kicks off the episode from his caravan in the outback!}

_{4.00 – Mike ponders, is 2025 the year of the rise of affordable markets? And will the growth be sustained long-term?}

_{8.00 – Dave discusses the macro versus micro aspects that investors must consider when selecting property and he and Mike canvas data integrity also.}

_{12.45 – Are owner-occupiers looking at property differently to how investors do?}

_{15.10 – Cate emphasises the importance of understanding zoning and overlays}

_{19.48 – What does rental yield tell us about a property? And what’s more important, growth or yield?}

_{26.36 – Mike chats about some of Kent Lardner’s work: The Four Pillars}

_{34.10 – Gold Nuggets}

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🎙In this episode, Dave is joined by Cate and Mike to tackle two common traps for investors: over-reliance on suburb-level data and the temptation of “bargains” in the bottom quartile of property prices.

💸 Cate kicks things off by sharing her concerns about investors—especially first-timers—being seduced by cheap properties promoted in suburb data reports. Many of these are in low socio-economic areas or regions with limited long-term growth potential. While high rental yields might appear attractive, these properties often lack the owner-occupier appeal that drives sustained capital growth. Cate warns that when investors flock to a small area, values can spike briefly before stagnating, sometimes leaving the last buyers in trouble.

📊 Mike reinforces this by breaking down the pitfalls of suburb medians. While they’re easily accessible, they can be dangerously misleading without context. Instead, Mike suggests filtering data by dwelling type, looking at sales dispersion, DOM (days on market), vendor discounting, and percentage of stock on market for a clearer sense of supply and demand.

🗺 Cate stresses that suburbs are not homogenous—each street, pocket, and dwelling can vary widely. She’s seen investors buy sight-unseen in so-called “hot suburbs” only to end up with properties in undesirable streets or with hidden zoning issues. True due diligence goes beyond numbers to include lifestyle appeal, orientation, and neighbourhood quality. Dave reinforces a key point: just because a property sits within a “good” suburb doesn’t mean it’s a good purchase.

🏖 The conversation shifts to Kent’s “Four Pillars” research—a balanced lifestyle scorecard that equally weights proximity to beach, nature, urban amenities, and family infrastructure. Mike explains how areas scoring well across all four pillars, such as parts of Warringah, Townsville, and Perth, show strong long-term fundamentals. Cate notes that lifestyle appeal often underpins resilience and growth over decades, not just during a boom cycle.

🚩 As the trio wraps up, Cate’s biggest red flag is ultra-tight days on market compared with neighbouring suburbs—a sign that investor FOMO, (fear of missing out) may be inflating prices. Mike’s warning is to focus on supply constraints, like zoning or heritage overlays, which can underpin long-term capital growth.

Dave wraps up the episode and encourages investors not to be fooled by cheap price tags or simplified stats. They should treat data as a conversation starter, not a final verdict, and prioritise properties that appeal to a broad base of owner-occupiers. Long-term fundamentals, lifestyle drivers, and thorough due diligence win every time.

And our gold nuggets!…..

Cate Bakos’s gold nugget: Delve further if you are engaging a Buyers Agent who is reliant on this suburb data. Cate shares some good questions for consumers to ask.

David Johnston’s gold nugget: Dave delves into the psychology of property. What is it that makes people gravitate to particular suburbs and specific properties? “Whatever points someone might be making to you with a sea of data, the underlying principle is this: How many people in Australia would like to live in that property, in that street, in that location? That’s going to drive up your rent and your value over the next ten, twenty, thirty years.”

Mike Mortlock’s gold nugget: Mike talks about the necessity of understanding the growth drivers, (and specifically the owner-occupier appeal) of the investment purchase.

Related episodes:

Ep. 7             How to assess and select property like an A-grade Buyer’s Agent

Ep. 8             Interpreting data to uncover an outstanding property and location– and how to sort the gold from the lies, damn lies and statistics!

Ep. 14           How to choose a location for investment – what to look for and what to avoid

Ep. 102        How to determine property market values by using comparable sales

Ep. 216        Valuing Uniqueness – Appraising Properties with Special Features or Drawbacks

Upcoming episode: #323: Market Update July 2025

Resources:

https://www.apimagazine.com.au/news/article/an-overreliance-on-suburb-data-can-undermine-a-property-investment

The challenge for investors in the bottom quartile pricing

Why MEDIAN data is not reliable