This home at 72 Melrose Place, New Beith, is newly listed for sale. Picture: realestate.com.au
Once the hunting ground of beer-budget buyers, these Brisbane suburbs now require the deep pockets of the champagne class after seeing some of the country’s strongest price growth in the past 30 years.
Exclusive PropTrack analysis revealed Brisbane’s top performing suburbs of the past three decades were on the outskirts of Greater Brisbane and saw home prices surge up to 18 times higher than in 1995.
The analysis calculated the price growth factor (PGF) – how much higher prices are now compared to 1995 – of suburbs across Australia’s major cities.
The acreage suburb of New Beith had the highest PGF in greater Brisbane with a median home price of $1.268m 18.1 times higher than 30 years ago.
This was also the highest PGF in any of the cities analysed.
Number two in Brisbane was Flagstone, where property was 17.2 times more expensive than in 1995, pushing the median home price up to $880,000.
On Russell Island and in Regency Downs buyers could expected to pay 17.1 times more than they did 30 years ago, with median home prices now sitting at $436,000 and $802,000 respectively.
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This home at 2 Bucknall Crt, Regency Downs, is for sale for $1.099m. Picture: realestate.com.au
Place Woolloongabba lead agent Savva Koulouris said he wasn’t surprised by the level of growth the Brisbane property market had achieved.
“Bricks and mortar is always a sound investment and time is something that will always be on your side,” he said.
“Over 30 years in a market, you definitely have your ups and downs.
“We’ve had the global financial crisis in 2007 impact the market and when Covid first hit Brisbane, we saw a dip in the market, but from then on we’ve seen year-on-year growth.”
Mr Koulouris said long term owners were often surprised by how much their homes had increased in value.
“I’ll speak to sellers who, for example, bought a home in 1998 for $180,000 at 18 per cent interest, which was a lot for them at the time,” he said.
“If they have been watching market, generally they’re quite shocked at how much their home is now worth.”
PropTrack data shows the median house price in Brisbane 10 years ago was $481,000, while today it is $1.126m.
Savva Koulouris of Place Estate Agents Woolongabba. Picture: Supplied
REA Group economist Angus Moore said the forces driving price rises over the past 30 years were complex, but could be broadly categorised by changes in supply and demand.
He said interstate migration was one of the main reason Brisbane had seen strong price growth.
“There was a previous boost from the mining boom and a lot has happened in the past 30 years, but the common thread of outperformance in Brisbane comes back to the fundamentals: people want to live in Queensland,” he said.
Mr Moore said the affordability of Southeast Queensland markets was also a factor in the region recording high PGFs, with growth especially strong in the last five years.
“Ipswich and Logan were higher performers in recent years because they were more affordable,” he said.
Bay Islands Property principal, Chris McGregor said on Russell Island and Macleay Island, which recorded high PGFs while still offering median home prices below $550,000, growth had not been steady across the past 30 years.
“From the end of the GFC, we’re talking 2008, to 2015 prices were coming down and down and down,” he said.
“If you paid $100,000 for a block of land pre-GFC it was only in last 12 months you’ve been able to get your money back.
“Pre-Covid you were paying $30,000 for a block land but today that would be selling for $80,000 to $100,000.”
Home prices have increased 17-fold on Russell Island since 1995. Picture: Supplied
Mr McGregor said while a lack of infrastructure on the islands, including sewers, sealed roads and parking, had deterred some buyers, affordability meant demand was up and so too were prices.
“We’re busting at the seams,” he said.
“We have about 3000 homes on Russell Island now and when I moved here 15 years ago we had about 1200.”
On the Gold Coast, the top performing suburbs outdid most of the country with Pacific Pines in top spot, recording a price growth factor of 15.6 over the past 30 years to hit a median home price of $1.139m.
In Reedy Creek the combined unit and house median price of $1.613m was 15 times higher than three decades ago, and in Ormeau Hills a price growth factor of 14.1 pushed the average home cost up to $1.019m in 2025.
Mr Moore said the Gold Coast was a similar story to Brisbane – it recorded tremendous growth due to interstate migration, but it was unlikely that growth would be matched in the next 30 years.
“The Gold Coast is a lot more urbanised now,” he said.
“You can only do that change once.
“Growth is not finished, but the biggest change for the Gold Coast has already passed.”
PropTrack economist Angus Moore. Picture: Supplied
Mr Moore said nationally there far fewer homes being built today relative to population growth, and this was creating supply shortages across major city markets.
“Price rises, to some extent, are in our control if we build more housing in places where people want to live,” he said.
Mr Moore said this change coincided with a “structural” downward shift in interest rates over the period, which meant buyers had access to more debt and could spend more on housing.
He pointed to the RBA’s cash rate, which peaked at 17.5 per cent in early 1990 and steadily dropped over the decades until reaching a record low of 0.1 per cent in 2021 and 3.6 per cent today.
“Over the last 30 years, the structural decline in interest rates has been part of the reason prices have grown,” he said.
“That structural decline has already happened and can’t happen again.”
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