QLD MARKET OVERVIEW
QUEENSLAND
QLD Market Overview with Will Carman
Reflecting on 2022, what were some of the prevailing trends that you noticed and how did they play out in the market? Throughout 2022 the strong economic conditions have led to significant job growth in Queensland. With the pandemic beginning in March 2020, since April that same year, we have seen approximately 350,000 jobs (seasonally adj.) created in the state which has amounted to a quarter of the national job creation.. As a result, Queensland’s unemployment rate dropped to historically low levels in 2022, bottoming out at 3.3% in November and softening to 3.8% in December. Health care (16.6%), Education (12.7%), and Professional services (8.3%) jobs grew most significantly in Queensland year on year, all tracking above national growth rates. The combination of a strong labour force and nation leading population growth has positioned Queensland as the best performing state in CommSec’s State of the State’s December quarterly report. We are still seeing great demand of development sites across Queensland with many new entrants to our market. The quick changing economy has meant that the market has been evolving and 2022 saw trends changing accordingly. Some of these trends included;
• ‘Flight for quality’ with all development sites, highly focused on owner occupier style product and premium offerings. • New development sites are not being built to their full potential, meaning they have gone through a cost minimisation phase, therefore a reduction of car parking (in particular basement parking) with a focus on increasing Net Sellable Area (NSA) • A number of new entrants to our market from intrastate as well as international looking to Queensland for good value and high demand. • Build-to-Rent has been a big wave of new interest over 2022, with Queensland, in particular Brisbane, the perfect location with cheaper land pricing and construction costs compared to our other major cities with still very tight residential vacancy and increasing weekly rents. Market-wise, what are you forecasting in the first half of 2023 and how will increased lending costs impact the various markets? The outlook for the Queensland economy remains solid among global economic slowdown, with population growth expected to accelerate above national growth. Despite interest rate hikes, demand for housing persists with Brisbane residential vacancy at 1.1% in December 2022. In addition,
WILL CARMAN Associate Director CBRE Head of Metropolitan Investments Brisbane
56 –February / March 2023
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