HELP! Melbourne or Brisbane

[feihong]

Hi Feihong,

South East Queensland (particularly Brisbane and Gold Coast) is currently experiencing the highest population growth in Australia... Brisbane fares better simply because they are not building enough houses there to support the population growth. This growth is mostly contributed by interstate migrants from Victoria and New South Wales due to more jobs vacancy and more affordable houses in South East Queensland. Also, economy in the area is doing well with less than 5% of unemployment rate.

tips: The government are encouraging higher density housing around Brisbane inner city. Bargain for properties nearest possible to the CBD with great land quantity. This gives you an opportunity to subdivide the land and sell for great profits later on especially when the land has a DA. However, not all areas would get DA easily. So be careful and do your due dilligence first for the area.

Good luck and all the best!

Thanks for sharing your insight. Encouragement from the government to develop high density residential areas certain helps capital growth big time. What's the major industries in SE QLD that provide employment to ppl? Also, is infrastructure already there to support the expanding population?

P.S.: Granny flat is also allowed in Melbourne, as long as you declare you intend to build it for relatives to live in in the long run.

 

[ruroshin]

Thanks for sharing your insight. Encouragement from the government to develop high density residential areas certain helps capital growth big time. What's the major industries in SE QLD that provide employment to ppl? Also, is infrastructure already there to support the expanding population?

P.S.: Granny flat is also allowed in Melbourne, as long as you declare you intend to build it for relatives to live in in the long run.

The SEQ Regional Plan has info on infrastructure plans http://www.oum.qld.gov.au/?id=29

I commute to the CBD each day from the south using the south-east freeway or the M1 that connects the Gold Coast to Brisbane. That freeway is a huge bottleneck in the morning and afternoon despite having 4 lanes each way (shrinks to 3 getting closer to the CBD). Although this will change as they are already in the process of upgrading it. I imagine this will make suburbs along that corridor even more attractive when its done.

 

[alexlee]

Are there ANY major roads, freeways or otherwise, that AREN'T bottlenecks during rush hour?
Alex

 

[ruroshin]

Are there ANY major roads, freeways or otherwise, that AREN'T bottlenecks during rush hour?
Alex

I guess you're right but the GC and Brisbane are the two biggest population center in SEQ and lots of people commute between the two using the M1 so it makes this corridor the busiest in QLD. In the morning from about Holland Park to the CBD about 6km its turtle speed all the way. Usually takes about 20mins to get into the CBD thats a kind of a long time for 6k of travel with no traffic lights. But as I said they are doing some construction along that particular stretch so I imagine they're going to widen the road a bit to ease the congestion.

 

[alexlee]

What I'm saying is, I don't think crowded highways are necessarily a big turnoff for people, since EVERY major highway is going to be crowded during peak hours anyway.
Alex

 

[LynnH]

I have to say that I think the traffic in Melbourne is less of a problem than in Brisbane. We were in Melbourne a few weeks ago - all the freeways and the Western Ring road made it very easy to get around. We did the trip Melbourne to the Sth Gippsland Hwy on the Friday of the Phillip Island Grand Prix weekend, and expected it to be an absolute nightmare, since it was afternoon peak hour. But we had a relatively quick trip with few hold-ups, and were in Leongatha half an hour earlier than we expected.

Brisbane, on the other hand, is a nightmare - infrastructure has been sadly neglected for far too long. Roads everywhere are a mess and there seems to be no such thing as peak hour any more - I have left home to go to the city as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 9 a.m. and there is little difference. My daughter has to drive from home to Uni at St Lucia every day, and has taken as long as 2 hrs 40 mins to make the trip (it used to take 40 mins in the middle of the day). And I had one memorable afternoon when it took 1 hr 40 mins to get from the bottom on the Gateway Bridge on the north side to the bottom of the bridge on the south side!

So if anyone is considering buying property in Brisbane, I would highly recommend purchasing near a train station or near one of the dedicated busways - the chaos is only going to get worse before it gets better!

Cheers
LynnH

 

[feihong]

The traffic problem echoes the situation in Perth according to several posts here. After all, Brisbane and Perth are the direct beneficiary of this boom.