Brisbane and Queensland have seen a huge surge in interest over recent years, driven by the great lifestyle on offer and also the region’s relative affordability compared to Sydney and Melbourne.
During the ongoing COVID lockdowns accessing the larger capital cities, Brisbane emerged as a location for people wanting to escape. From there, a surge of interstate investors followed, and as a result, prices have been rising and Brisbane continues to be one of the country’s strongest property markets.
For many years, prestige property was not something that was on the radar for locals, with most of the interest coming from interstate. However, there’s been a growing trend of Brisbane locals starting to buy up property at the upper end of the market, driven by the strong growth the region has experienced.
Ray White chief economist Nerida Consibee said the change in demand from locals has been dramatic across Brisbane.
“Three years ago there wasn’t even a $2 million suburb in Brisbane,” she said.
“Now we’ve got Chandler with a median price of $3.2 million, Teneriffe with a median price of $3.1 million, New Farm with a median of $2.7 million.
“The median price for properties in the top 5 per cent has risen by 67 per cent in four years – that’s how quickly things have changed.
“If you were lucky enough to buy in 2020, you would have got a very cheap luxury property.”
One of the key drivers of growth over the past few years has clearly been the huge surge in population according to Ms Conisbee.
Huge numbers have been moving to the Sunshine State from interstate while immigration levels from overseas are at extreme levels.
“A lot of it is to do with Sydney and Melbourne money,” she said.
“They came with a lot, they put it into Brisbane property, and overall, it creates this wealth effect.
“People are simply looking at prices very differently.”
Across the top end, a lot of the properties that were previously priced around $10 million have seen those values surge to over $20 million. A big jump in a short space of time.
According to local agents, 90% of big-ticket purchasers are now from Brisbane locals trading up.
Brisbane buyers are just as likely to pay top dollar for property as purchasers from Sydney and other prime residential markets. Agents are reporting that buyers are now prepared to mix it with the interstate buyers, which is having a flow-on effect on prices.
Ms Conisbee said that there has been a huge surge in interest for luxury apartments as well and she expects the overall change in buyer behaviour to continue.
“The strength of the market has given locals the validation they perhaps weren’t expecting,” she said.
“There’s always a ceiling, and while we know there’s far more wealth concentrated in Sydney, there’s also a shortage of homes here … Brisbane is catching up.”
