Home price surge forcing two-hour commute for cheaper housing

The latest PropTrack Quarterly Home Values report found more than 500 Greater Brisbane suburbs made up over 900 spread across Queensland where prices jumped between 10 and 43.2 per cent in just the past year.

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said the surges came despite high interest rates thanks to a massive supply-demand imbalance across South East Queensland.

“The reality is because property prices have increased beyond the level a lot of people can afford in some of those inner areas, people have to make a choice about what they’re willing to compromise. Either they’re willing to compromise on space and live somewhere close to their place of work, or maybe they’re willing to compromise on location and be willing to tolerate a longer commute time.”

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty says the reality is property prices have increased beyond the level that a lot of people can afford in inner areas.

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Some of the cheapest suburbs to buy homes in last decade have seen prices surge the most this past year, such as Slacks Creek which is up 43.2 per cent, Woodridge 39.8 per cent, Waterford West 38.4 per cent, Goodna 37.9 per cent, Booval and Kingston both increased 37.7 per cent while Browns Plains rose 37.6 per cent.

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher co-founder of The Demographics Group said a two hour commute was fast becoming a reality for capital cities including Brisbane.

“We are continuing to sprawl out our cities,” he said. “Greenfield development is very much part of the housing solution in the coming decade.”

“We have communities on the outskirts, on the urban fringe.”

Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the largest population growth areas were “mostly in outer-suburban parts of the capital cities, where population growth was driven by net internal migration gains”.

In Brisbane that surge was most pronounced in Boronia Heights-Park Ridge in Logan where 2,000 people were added in one year – the third highest number added to any suburb in the country in that time.

Inner Brisbane is now unaffordable for the vast majority of buyers unless they consider units.

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The five cheapest suburbs across the Greater Brisbane region to buy into this past year centred on units in Logan-Beaudesert such as Logan Central, Kooralbyn, Woodridge, and Beenleigh, with only one house market in the list – Russell Island. All were priced under $390,000 medians.

James Kirkland of independent agency Little Real Estate said more properties were now not even making it to auction, as buyers snap them up at premium prices rather than face active competition.

“I’m a third generation real estate agent, two decades and I haven’t seen anything like it before,” he said. “I’m seeing Queensland moving at a pace far quicker than any other state.”

Mr Kirkland said desperate buyers were now embracing innovative ways to enter the market, including buying with friends and family, receiving early inheritances and investing further out.

See the latest PropTrack Home Price Index

Ms Flaherty said residential expansion would create more opportunities for employment outliers and economic opportunities on the outskirts of major zones like Greater Brisbane.

“The further people sprawl out away from the city, the more infrastructure, the more retail, the more healthcare, the more schools and childcare centres that we need in these outer suburbs. People need a certain amount of amenity around where they live and as we see people move further and further away from the city, that’s going to increase demand for that amenity.”

Ms Flaherty said South East Queensland has significantly outperformed over the pandemic years due to interstate migration and continued to see demand rise off both that and overseas migration figures.

“We’re going to continue to see buyers competing for the stock of homes that’s going to probably be shrinking relative to the size of the actual population.”