Brisbane’s most promising suburbs

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In our search for Brisbane’s most promising suburbs to invest in, Shannon Davis has given us a good insight into what to look for, what are the important indicators to consider and his tips for sound property investing.

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Kevin:  Welcome back to the show. Just a bit of a wrap for you. We’ve been talking to Shannon Davis in the show today, from Metropole Properties and Image Properties in Brisbane, looking at the prime Brisbane suburbs and the properties.

Just give me a wrap on the Brisbane market, Shannon, just to leave us.

Shannon:  Kevin, I think freestanding houses and townhouses make great value at the moment. You can buy two or three for one Sydney apartment at the moment. I’m thinking in time, it’s going to look like Sydney is over-valued and Brisbane’s showing great value.

I think eventually, units are going to be a good counter-cyclical play. I think you could take the longer view. I think you’re going to start too see some really good bargains there that you’ll be happy with the price that you paid in 10 to 15 years’ time. So, if everyone’s saying it’s a crazy idea, it might just be a good idea.

Kevin:  Yes, counter-cyclical. There was some news during the week, too, about the slowdown of building of units in Brisbane – units coming out of the ground. So, there’s definitely going to be a shortage of them in the next 18 months, two years.

Shannon:  Yes, definitely. And I think, also, interstate migration. There was news out this week where the 20-year-olds and 40-year-olds are making their way up to South  East Queensland. They’re two pretty handy demographics to have.

And I think it’s just going to be irresistible. Moving up to a better climate, pretty good infrastructure, not as much congestion and traffic, and we’re only showing that our prices are 3.5 times the annual salary, whereas Sydney and Melbourne are showing their annual income to be 9.5 times. So, they’re a lot more leveraged than we are, and that’s going to have a knock-on effect to the cost of living going forward.

Kevin:  And the Brisbane market itself, while it hasn’t been growing as strong as Sydney and Melbourne – and they continue to grow – the Brisbane market continually surprises me in that it’s just so stable and that it’s almost like a budgeted continual growth.

Shannon:  Yes, definitely. I think that’s how we want our investing to be. We don’t want really exciting and dramatic investments; we want them to just move along and progress is great. Make your life interesting and your investments boring.

Kevin:  The suburbs that we have looked at in the Brisbane area that you should be having a look at were Mansfield, Belmont, Everton Park, and Holland Park. All averaging low days on market of around 30 to 35, so ticking over quite nicely. And three-year growth there, Mansfield was spectacular at 20.31%, 8.6% growth in Belmont, 18.2% in Everton Park, and 30.5% in Holland Park, so some really good indicators there about growth.

Just quickly – about a minute to go – just your key tops for anyone looking to buy an investment property.

Shannon:  When we invest, we have to think about owner-occupiers. All those suburbs have young professional families in common. Australians spend more on our housing up to about age 55, and then it starts to decline. So, what we are looking for is young families moving to the area.

Take action. Time your life, not the market. If you’re in a place where you can invest and it makes sense for you, do so. Also, take your time, do your research. This is a long-term play. You need to make sure that you’ve done all the research before you jump in to an expensive thing like a house.

Kevin:  It’s been great this morning. Shannon Davis has been my guest in this special show this week, as we looked at the Brisbane market and identified those four suburbs for you and why you should be looking at them, and even selected some of the properties that you should be looking at in there, as well.

Shannon, thank you very much for your time.

Shannon:  Thanks, Kevin.