5 Reasons to Invest in Brisbane Today
Lets look at five key reasons to invest in the Brisbane property market.
Brisbane is Australia’s third-largest capital city and there’s so much upside potential in this market.
1. Population Growth
The number one reason on our list is the population growth that’s expected to happen in Brisbane over the next few years. The total population in Greater Brisbane was 3.8 million people in 2020 and the forecasts say that we’re going to have roughly 5.44 million people in Brisbane around 2041. That’s an extra 1.65 million people moving into the greater Brisbane area.
All of the greater Brisbane areas are going to benefit from this population growth. Some of this population growth is going to come from Interstate migration where people are looking for that Sunny Queensland lifestyle change. We are also expecting a lot of overseas migration to flood into the Brisbane Market as well. As the bigger markets of Sydney and Melbourne become too expensive for many migrants.
So with around 80,000 people moving to the Brisbane region each year for the next 10 to 15 years, it is easy to see how the population will be significantly larger in future years.
One of the strongest drivers of population growth is the demand to live in an ideal location, so with all of these interstate and international migrants coming to Brisbane, we are going to see an increase in demand for property. This may be for a property to live in or a property for investment purposes as a rental. This means that there is going to be upward pressure on property prices, especially in the in-demand areas with a limited supply of new land.
Population growth is one of the strongest drivers of property prices
2. Jobs and Wages
The second reason why Brisbane might be a great place to invest your money in terms of property would be the jobs growth for people to be able to pay more for their own home or for an investment opportunity they need to be able to have the income to service the dead so
Information from the ABS which compares our major capital cities and the average incomes people earn between August 2015 and August 2021 shows that people in Sydney had the highest median weekly earnings of $1300 per week, closely followed by Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane all at around $1200 per week. So when you compare the major capital cities Brisbane is not too far behind on average, earnings in those major markets.
However, if you compare the property prices between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, we will see that property prices in Sydney are significantly more expensive than in Brisbane. This means that based on the average income people are going to have the ability to pay a higher amount for Brisbane property. A similar situation exists with the Melbourne market being well above the Brisbane market as well.
With the current unemployment rate at around the 3.5% mark in Australia at this point in time people are going to be able to have a job and if those jobs pay around $1200 per week compared to Sydney at $1300 per week employers may even favour recruiting from the Brisbane market place. Since the Covid lockdowns, many businesses have discovered that they do not need their staff to come into an office. This has led to a lot more working from home. It has also meant that people who work in Sydney or Melbourne can now live in the Sunshine State while still working with their big city employers.
There is also an expectation that people will continue to see wage increases over time and potentially be able to pay more for property driving up capital growth.
3. Great Schools
When you have lots of families on good wages move to Brisbane you will find that they are going to want to send their kids to a fantastic school.
Brisbane is very fortunate as we have great schools, whether you’re looking at the public system or the private school system there are some amazing schools. In the public school system some standout High schools would be Brisbane State High, Kelvin Grove State College and Wavell State High School.
Wavell Heights in particular over the last 12 to 24 months has seen an insane amount of growth because there has been such demand for those properties to get into that school catchment. We’ve seen homes in that area go from around the $800K to $1M all the way up to around the $2 million to $3 million mark.
In the Primary schools system McDowall State School is highly regarded and we find people often asking to check that they are in the catchment zone.
When those parents move to Brisbane with their higher incomes and they are looking to get their children into an exceptional school, that will create demand for homes that sit in these school zones. Just like buying with a water view can be regarded as ideal, buying in a school cathment can be an invisable positive for an area.
Brisbane also has a lot of high quality private schools which have high academic results, and a lot of extra -curricular activities both sporting and cultural. Some of the leading private schools could be Brisbane Grammer, Somerville House, Nudgee College or Churchie. There are many more as well.
The Brisbane property market is dominated by owner-occupiers, so it’s important to look for a property with that owner-occupier (or family) appeal so when you’re looking at school zones and you’re looking at the Brisbane property market make sure you assess both the state and private schools for their long-term demand.
4. Infrastructure Spending
There is an extraordinary amount of money being spent on roads and transport infrastructure at the moment. These significant projects have been brought forward to fast-track Brisbane’s growth, for example the Cross River Rail is due for completion in 2024.
The Cross River Rail is a $5.4 billion project that’s going to connect the north side of Brisbane to the south side with an underground rail network. It’s going to start around the Dutton Park, Boggo Road stations and work its way north through a new station at Woolloongabba, where the Olympic stadium is located, and through to a new Albert Street station and then Roma Street station and out to the Exhibition station. It’s going to work in with the existing rail line and this $5.4 billion project is going to make access through the CBD a lot quicker.
In terms of the public transport system the government is going to be spending a lot of money on these stations and we expect gentrification to occur in these locations. It’s going to make it a lot easier to get from north to south or south to north quickly and access these sporting facilities and the inner city.
Another major transport initiative which is underway and due to progress into 2024 is the Brisbane Metro Network. The Brisbane Metro is essentially these train-like buses which can carry around 100 to 120 people, instead of having light rail here in Brisbane(we are basically a large bus network city now). There are designated bus lane running from north to south with a northern busway and a southern busway. There’s going to be two Metro lines the Southern Line will run from Eight Mile Plains all the way into Roma Street Station and the Metro 2 line which will run from the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital all the way down to the University of Queensland.
So between the Cross River Rail and the Brisbane Metro the public transport network from the north side to the south side of Brisbane City is going to be far more interconnected by around about 2024/25.
Another really exciting project happening on the south side in Greater Brisbane is the Coomera connector they’re currently undertaking work in stage one of the Coomera connector and the Australian and Queensland government have committed $2.16 billion to this project so far. The first stage is between Coomera and Nerang and future stages will run all the way up to around Loganholme and Eagleby. Works on stage one are expected to be completed around about 2024.
On the north side, work has started on the expansion of the Bruce highway between the Pine River and Caboolture. This is a project that will greatly enhance the quality of life for people that use this road regularly. Both of these road projects will reduce congestion and allow traffic to flow faster and more smoothly.
These infrastructure projects create jobs and pump money into the local community, at the same time as making the place more livable.
5. Olympic Games
The Olympic Games are one of the key reasons why all of these projects have been brought forward. The state government is using the Olympic Games to accelerate projects especially around the Woolloongabba area.
All of these roads and the infrastructure of the train and bus networks and the Olympic Games is a transformational opportunity for Brisbane to put itself on the map as a global City.
We are already starting to see activity around the venue suburbs. Prices are moving up as people are looking to position themselves to take advantage of increasing demand.
Past history shows that there is a steady “olympics” effect in host cities with prices rising even past the date of the olympics. Will that happen in Brisbane, who knows but there are so many other great things happening here, it is likely that it will be the cherry on top.
So that are the 5 major reasons why investing into the Brisbane property market now is likely to produce some serious long term capital growth. Give David or Justin a call to discuss why we are so bullish on the market and how you can get a great property for your future.
House prices are on the move. Find out the value of your property now.
Get a free online property report from Hicks Real Estate. It takes seconds.
