Property Boom South East Queensland is shaping up to be a strong bet for investors

South East Queensland is shaping up to be a strong bet for investors, with properties from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast selling fast and on a solid foundation for capital growth in 2021.

For much of 2020, it has seemed like just about everybody in Australia wants to move to Queensland.

As the pandemic began, so did a major demographic shift to the Sunshine State, with a recent report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing Queensland has had a net gain of more than 22,000 people in 2020, nearly double its 10-year average of 12,409.

Demand for houses is ramping up quickly as a result, erasing any predictions of property price plunges and pivoting them to prognostications of significant capital growth.

ANZ recently said it was expecting Brisbane house prices to grow by 9.5 per cent in 2021, with the Queensland capital likely to battle with Perth for the title of Australia’s property market leader in the coming months.

As well as Queensland’s enviable lifestyle and the state’s ability to suppress the coronavirus, buyers have been attracted to a rising and reasonably affordable property market.

CoreLogic’s latest data showed Brisbane properties’ average days on the market for the three months to the end of September were just 45 days, while the city’s median dwelling price was just over $515,000 at the end of November.

Price growth for Brisbane in the year to November 30 was 3.2 per cent, while dwelling prices in regional Queensland were up 6 per cent over the 12 months, CoreLogic said.

Gross rental yields in Brisbane sit at 4.2 per cent, while yields in regional Queensland at the end of November were 5.2 per cent.

Combine Queensland’s unique factors and market characteristics with historically-low interest rates, surging consumer confidence, and billions of dollars in infrastructure investment, and the scene is set for a property boom.

“There are so many moving parts that add up to having a successful project launch like this, particularly in the current environment.

“While things are certainly improving, and quite substantially, the reality is there has been a lot of uncertainty, and there hasn’t been a lot of people doing average sales of $1.2 million off-the-plan in Brisbane in the last six months.”