Where to buy in Queensland: eight suburbs to watch

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With property prices falling in Sydney and Melbourne but growing strongly in other parts of the country, and a sharemarket that has dropped sharply, this will be a tough year for investors.

But there are still pockets of value.

Property winners in 2018 included Newcastle and its neighbours (up to 20%) in NSW and Ballarat (up to 15%) in Victoria, and then there's Queensland.

queensland property hotspots townsville

Queensland

Brisbane hasn't joined the Sydney/Melbourne boom because it has lacked the growth drivers evident in the biggest cities.

But many of the ducks are falling into line for Brisbane, with the underlying economy stronger, population data favouring south-east Queensland and infrastructure spending picking up. Big-city investors are looking for alternatives to the Sydney and Melbourne markets and Brisbane presents favourably on pricing and yields.

The cheaper local government areas such as Moreton Bay in the north, Logan in the south and Ipswich in the south-west should be busy this year.

The inner-city apartment market still needs to be approached with caution. Early in 2019 vacancy rates (according to SQM Research) were 9% in the Brisbane CBD, 6% in Fortitude Valley, 5% in Kangaroo Point and Woolloongabba and 6.5% in South Brisbane/West End.

The best prospects will be in regional markets. The Sunshine Coast is currently the strongest market, with many suburbs recording price growth above 10% last year, led by top-end locations such as Minyama, Sunshine Beach and Noosa. Expect the more affordable areas to grow well in 2019, as the impact of the big infrastructure spend ripples through.

In 2018 we saw the first tangible signs of recovery in centres impacted by the resources sector, led by Mackay. Others showing promise include Emerald, Rockhampton, Moranbah and Dalby, although these areas can be volatile.

Bigger and more diverse cities such as Toowoomba and Cairns should put in a solid performance.

For full coverage of Money's top 50 share buys and property hotspots, pick up our February issue, on sale now

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Terry Ryder is the creator and owner of Hotspotting, which helps identify emerging property markets. He has three decades of experience as a researcher and commentator.
Comments
Ken
February 14, 2019 10.04am

Your assumptions relating to Townsville's boom may be tested bearing in mind the recent flooding that is estimated to run into $100 million.
If I were looking at real estate there, it would be on top of a very high hill otherwise forget it.

David
February 28, 2019 9.15am

there are some very small sububs in inner Brisbane, they don't make the headlines, because they are so small.

One that springs to mind immediately is Fairfield.

It has a very small footprint, has a train station which is only 3 stops to Southbank & further 2 to city & as the crow flies it's 2kms from city, by road from about 3kms.

The council in Brisbane is allowing high density living without highrises, so some 3 stories blocks of units, plus there are subdivisions allowed down to as little as 200 sq m. Roughly 1/2 of the suburb is well above recroded flood levels(part of suburb borders the Brisbane river). It's very close to 4 major hospitals, Mater, Childrens, Princess Alexandra & Greenslopes, the Gabba cricket & AFL ground & just across the river via Schonnel Bridge in massive Uni of Qld.

Daren Gibson
February 16, 2020 11.13am

Hi. I'm thinking of investing in a house at Yarrabilba. I don't know a lot about investing. Is Yarrabilba expected to be good investment