Top three Brisbane property locations for affordability and growth: Terry Ryder

Top three Brisbane property locations for affordability and growth: Terry Ryder
Terry RyderDecember 17, 2020

Brisbane is increasingly in the crosshairs of real estate buyers because of the affordability comparison.

It’s median house price is almost exactly half that of Sydney’s and so is its median unit price. The comparisons are also highly favourable with Melbourne and Canberra.

Having cheap real estate on offer is one thing; the key question is whether there are also prospects for growth. That’s why one of Hotspotting’s most popular products is the “Cheapies with Prospects” package – it focuses on areas that offer not only affordability but also potential for growth.

Brisbane overall hasn’t offered much in the way of capital gains during the period in which Sydney and Melbourne have thrived, largely because the underlying economy has under-achieved.

But there are mounting signs of improvement, especially in the areas of jobs creation, population growth and revival in the resources sector.

So where to head for homes at attainable prices and growth drivers? Brisbane offers three standout options, where there is ample supply of houses well below the overall Greater Brisbane median house price around $530,000.

The cheapest real estate in the Greater Brisbane area is generally found in the Ipswich City LGA in the south-west. Here there are suburbs with median house prices in the $200,000s and the low $300,000s.

One precinct with appeal is the one that includes Goodna (median house price $325,000) and Redbank Plains ($335,000). These suburbs are at the eastern fringe of the LGA, the part closest to Brisbane – and they abut the motorway and the train line that links to central Brisbane. 

They’re also close to the Springfield master-planned community which has an array of modern facilities, including university campus, hospital and commercial-retail precincts.

There are numerous big shopping centres and major employment nodes nearby, with the recently-announced $5 billion Defence vehicle contract focused on this precinct as a major new jobs creator.

So this precinct offers an appealing package: affordability, transport links, shopping and jobs nodes.

Logan City in the far south of the Greater Brisbane area has plenty to offer as well. Many of its suburbs have median house prices in the $300,000s, including Eagleby ($315,000), Beenleigh ($335,000) and Woodridge ($310,000).

This LGA has new development areas, where master-planned communities are under way, but these are off the west, whereas the older and cheaper suburbs tend to be clustered around the transport spine created by the Pacific Motorway and the train line, both of which link central Brisbane to the Gold Coast.

This is also where there is an impressive shopping offering, including major bulky goods retail, and well-established infrastructure like schools and medical facilities (as well as a surprising number of golf courses).

The third of the “Cheapies with Prospects” areas to note in Greater Brisbane is the Moreton Bay LGA up in the far north heading towards the Sunshine Coast. Like Logan City, this precinct has major road and rail links between the coast and central Brisbane.

This is the most active market in Greater Brisbane at the moment: Caboolture, Kallangur, Morayfield, Narangba and North Lakes have each recorded over 400 house sales in the past 12 months.

The first three on that list have median house prices in the $300,000s, as do several other suburbs in the LGA (including some of the bayside areas). North Lakes, a suburb created by an ongoing master-planned community, is more expensive with a median around $500,000, but has brought a heightened level of infrastructure and amenities to the precinct.

There are emerging signs of price growth in this precinct: the suburbs of Beachmere, Burpengary and Upper Caboolture have had double-digit growth in their median prices in the past year, while others are up 6-7 percent.

The upmarket end of the Moreton Bay LGA market is the Redcliffe Peninsula – but most of the water-focused suburbs in this precinct have median house prices in the $400,000s, which is still fairly attractive compared to what you’d pay in Sydney and Melbourne.

And the Peninsula now has rail links to central Brisbane (the new line opened in 2016).

Many of the suburbs in the three precincts have median rental yields in the 5 to 5.5 percent range, as an additional appeal factor.

 

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au

ryder@hotspotting.com.au

twitter.com/hotspotting

Terry Ryder

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au.

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