PROPERTY PORTFOLIO
HOT PROPERTY Brisbane’s property market going for gold.
WORDS NICK NICHOLS PANDEMICS are never meant to be good for property markets, but the rule book has been thrown out with this one. More than a year into the Australian property boom that was never meant to happen, it’s evident the forces that have brought the market to a new high are still at play. And while there is some debate over when the market will begin to cool, Brisbane’s successful bid for the 2032 Olympic Games has the potential to turn up the heat even more on the property market in south-east Queensland. The Olympics have effectively given the already fast-growing region new legs that most analysts agree will support the market in line with the infrastructure spending to come. We need look no further than the 2018 Commonwealth Games to see how that drove economic activity on the Gold Coast.
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“The Olympics should work as a positive influence on Brisbane housing market conditions,” says CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless. “The flow-on effects are likely to be gradual and centred on significant infrastructure upgrades and the associated medium-term uplift in jobs and longer-term improvements in transport efficiency. “Large infrastructure projects tend to have a positive influence on housing prices, with the extra requirement for workers creating additional demand for housing during the construction process.” That all sounds positive, but it’s obvious that the Queensland property market, especially in the south-east, was doing pretty well even before Brisbane was named a future Olympic city earlier this year..
The Games provide plenty of opportunities for those with a strategic long-term view to property investment. However, there’s at least one more property cycle to be had between now and then, with the likelihood of interest rate increases shaping future demand. The current strength of the market is reflected in rising yields for investors with Australia recording the biggest rent increases in more than a decade. The CoreLogic Quarterly Rental Review revealed rent values for the June quarter were up 6.6 per cent over the previous year. This compares with average growth of 1.8 per cent over the previous decade. However, price-growth momentum has started to show some signs of easing over recent months despite the solid headline gains.
