“Queensland is now a more popular place for investing than Victoria, and experts are not surprised. 

For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Sunshine State has become the second-largest investment market, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.”

Read Domain’s full, original article here.

“In September, Queensland had 4,593 new investor loan commitments – 700 more than Victoria – now holding 23.4 per cent of the investor market, according to Money.com.au.

“Queensland definitely is the investment capital at the moment, which is not surprising considering all that is going on – infrastructure builds, Olympics, residential development, build-to-rent, etc,” says PRD real estate chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo.

“Queensland has really been marketing itself as a place to do business and a place to invest,” she says.

Even with the Olympics on the horizon, Mardiasmo says the state has been promoting itself not just as a great place to live but as a place where the property market will flourish – with the median house price expected to crack the $1 million mark by the end of this calendar year.

This continuous growth of population, infrastructure and property development is likely to keep Queensland the second-largest investment market for a long time, says Mardiasmo.

2/21 Rensburg Street, Brighton QLD 4017

“[Queensland] has more room to grow compared to Victoria,” she says. 

Interstate investors are flocking to southeast Queensland in droves in search of affordable properties with high yields and capital growths – something Victoria is missing, says Brisbane-based buyer agent Lauren Jones. 

“A lot of people in Sydney will choose to invest somewhere like Brisbane because of affordability restraints. They’d also choose it over places like Melbourne because it’s cheaper to hold an investment property there.

“My investors, almost all of them, want to buy a house. It’s very rare that someone comes to me and says, “I want to buy a unit as an investment property”,” she says.

2 Monsoon Street, Russell Island QLD 4184

Roughly two years ago, many investors wanted to purchase on the Sunshine or Gold Coast, but in the past year, Jones has seen fewer people interested in the region as it has become too expensive for investors. 

Jones recommends that investors buy in Greater Brisbane, specifically in Moreton Bay City Council, Ipswich City Council, and Logan City Council areas. 

In Moreton Bay SA4, the median house price is $780,000 (northern region) and $860,000 (southern region). In Ipswich, it’s $710,000; in Logan, it’s $740,000, according to Domain data. 

“The demographics are good. They’re quite balanced. The rental return is also quite good, and they have all the access you need. So they’ve got good access to amenities like shopping centres and schools, and both of them have train lines back into the city,” says Jones.

 

9 Mortimer Street, Ipswich QLD 4305

And if Brisbane is still too expensive, she has been recommending Townsville to her clients. 

“Townsville is probably bumping up those [ABS] numbers for Queensland as well. It’s a bit of a hot spot just from a price point of view and a yield perspective. So that’s probably bringing a lot of investors to Queensland as well.”

Townsville has a median house price of $510,000 and has seen prices increase by 24.4 per cent in the past year.

“A lot of people are investing in regional markets because they see the past 12 months’ trends, and growth has been phenomenal in a lot of regional areas,” says buyer’s agent Arpit Singh of Cohen Handler buyer’s agency.

“One of my clients settled a property a few days ago in Townsville. He bought a 900 square metre block with a double storey house with the pool for $510,000,” says Singh. 

 

35 Coolmunda Street, Marsden QLD 4132

“He originally was like, ‘I want to buy something under $550,000’. I said: ‘In Brisbane, you’d be lucky to get a one-bedroom apartment with that budget. So you might want to go regional.’”

Despite regional Queensland booming, Singh expects most of the new investor loan commitments are from Greater Brisbane regions like Moreton Bay and Redlands.

“People know that the effect of the Olympics would be quite good in the property market and in terms of the capital growth, so they want to cash in on that opportunity as well.

“Also [investors] want to buy to their max capacities before the interest rates go down, so they can then enjoy the appreciation in their properties,” says Singh.

As the Olympics puts Brisbane on the global stage, says Mardiasmo, Queensland will grow as an investor hotspot.

“[Investing] is growing more in popularity in Queensland,” she says.”