you can do this with annotations like this
@Value("#{T(java.util.Arrays).asList('${my.list.of.strings:a,b,c}')}")
private List<String> mylist;
here my.list.of.strings will be picked from the properties file, if its not there, then the defaults a,b,c will be used
and in your properties file, you can have something like this
my.list.of.strings=d,e,f