Are you thinking of moving to Brisbane? Well there's a few things that have changed quite
recently that may make what you think you know about Brisbane actually not
so true anymore. So there's some things you really need to know,
so i'm going to talk in this video about both the pros and the cons and give you
some really up-to-date information that's going to help you make a much more informed decision.
So I moved to Brisbane in 2014 and i know what it's like to have to adjust to this city,
so there's some things that maybe are not so ideal that i'm going to tell you about later in
the video, but let's start with the pros. Probably the most obvious thing that's great about Brisbane
is the climate. I mean I'm here on a winter's day and I'm in a t-shirt. I mean how amazing is that?
The maximum temperature in summer is around 30 and it gets down to around 22 as a maximum
in winter. The nights can get a little bit chilly. In winter it gets down to around 10 on average in
the coldest nights, but you know, it's definitely not unbearable. What you may not know is that
based on a 2020 report by the Australia Institute, Brisbane actually now has 31 days less winter
than we did 50 years ago and 11 days more summer. So if you're into the warm weather that's really
good news. Some people aren't fans of the humidity, in summer it can hover around 57%
humidity, but again it's not unbearable. And because of that great climate, people like to
do a lot of things outdoors. In Brisbane and we've got a great natural environment, and i
would actually say that the natural environment is the second pro of living in Brisbane. I mean
it's a very green area. In the city of Brisbane there's actually 2160 parks, and some of those
parks are really beautiful during jacaranda season. And then in the area surrounding Brisbane
we've got a lot of really amazing national parks, waterfalls, rainforests, all kinds of places that
are just amazing to get out hiking, trekking, rock climbing, all kinds of things like that. So if
you're an active kind of person then Brisbane's definitely a good place to live on that front,
and because of that natural environment we've also got a lot of wildlife, a lot of native animals,
and so even in the botanic gardens over here right in the city, beside the usual ibises which are
an unofficial mascot of Brisbane, you can also see curlews, water dragons, you may even see a python.
So you know you when you're living even in the city you feel like you're still
in a really natural kind of environment. That's definitely one of Brisbane's assets.
There's no denying that Brisbane's a really pretty city, visually it's quite attractive,
which is great for me as a photographer, but it's more than just a pretty face. I mean it's
a multicultural city. Any kind of food you want to get there's a restaurant for it. And we also have
a range of cultural events. There's Curiocity, there's Enchanted Gardens, we've got the Brisbane
Comedy Festival, there's Riverfire, which is part of Brisbane Festival where we have this massive
fireworks display. All kinds of things going on all the time. And we've also got Australia's
biggest gallery of modern art. We've got the museums, we've got art galleries. Culturally
there's a lot going on. Even street art. We have quite an iconic street artist known as the Blu
Art Xinja, so there's a bunch of things going on on that front. And be sure to subscribe to this
channel because i cover a lot of those cultural events as well as a lot of other things to see and
do in and around Brisbane. But anyway, let's move on to the next point. Another aspect of Brisbane
that makes it quite a livable city is the public transport. The public transport system is actually
really good, and you can get most places without needing a car depending on where you're living,
so when you're looking for a location definitely check out the public transport options in that
area. But the public transport is only going to get better with Brisbane set to host the 2032
Olympics, so you know they're going to be pouring more money into that aspect of the infrastructure
as well. So that's some of the things that make Brisbane a really livable city, but there are
some things that are changing for the worse, and they're the things I'm going to talk about
right now. So now might be a good time for you to give the video a thumbs up before i give you the
bad news, because there are quite a few cons to living in Brisbane. The first one actually looks
like a pro when you look on the surface of things, but when you understand the current situation
and how things have changed recently you will actually see that it's not such a great thing,
and that's related to property prices whether you're buying or renting. Now if you're comparing
with the big cities in Australia, yes, Sydney and Melbourne are more expensive still. Sydney,
the median house price in June 2021 was over 1.41 million dollars and in Melbourne it was also over
a million, whereas Brisbane in June 2021 the median house price was just around 678 thousand
dollars, so much much lower than the other two big Australian cities. The other smaller cities
were all around the same ballpark as Brisbane, apart from Canberra which also went over the
one million dollar mark in june this year. So you may say "yeah hey the prices are not too
bad". While the prices may be lower in Brisbane compared to Sydney and Melbourne, the problem is
that a lot of people have been moving from there into Brisbane. Brisbane's become the place to be,
and other parts of Queensland as well, and what that's done is it's made it a very very
competitive market. So you may have the money to buy the place that you want and it will be cheaper
than in Sydney and Melbourne, you know, maybe half the price, but the problem is that there's a whole
lot of other people trying to buy places as well. So you may not be able to get the places you want
and you may not be able to be quite as selective as you could in the other cities because it's just
become such a hot market. And the other downside of that is that it has started to drive the prices
up. Now the good news is that Brisbane house prices haven't increased as much as in the other
cities. Overall they've only increased by around 13 percent in the last year, which is actually
much better than a lot of the other cities, but the bad news comes to if you're looking to rent.
Because while buying has become quite competitive, renting even more! So over the last 12 months
rentals have increased in pretty much every Australian city, but the good news is that
Brisbane rentals are still reasonably low if we look at the whole national situation, with
four australian cities costing more, sometimes much more, than brisbane to rent a place. But
what is the bad news is that just in the last few months rental prices have jumped as the market has
become extremely competitive. The surprising thing is that actually due to this increase in prices
the average rental price in Brisbane is actually now $20 higher than the average rental price in
Melbourne. For me that's really amazing, because people always talk about how affordable Brisbane
is, but now if you're renting it's actually less affordable than Melbourne, which is,
you know, not particularly cheap! So hey that's just something to keep in mind.
To make matters worse, potential tenants have actually started offering $10, $20, as much as $50
above what's being asked for the rental price per week just to secure the property. And it's become
really really hard to secure a rental. So if you're thinking of moving up here,
this is something you need to be aware of. Because it may be actually quite hard for
you to find a place to live. There's another thing that you might want to be aware of, um,
i might just head up to Mount Coot-tha and I'll tell you that, just for a different background...
OK, so i made it, and how good is that view? So let's talk about the second con that I've
got to mention, and that is also relating to money and things that you're going to pay,
and that is your ability to actually earn money in Brisbane may not be as good as in some of the
other cities. Based on a report by Budget Direct in June 2020, the average monthly income in Sydney
was five thousand four hundred and thirty three dollars. At the same time in Brisbane,
the average monthly income was four thousand seven hundred and one dollars. That's considerably less,
so you may be paying less for accommodation - if you can get it - but you also may not be able to
secure as high a paying job as you could in Sydney. Now those incomes could be affected
by the kinds of jobs available, but there is definitely more potential to earn a higher income
in some of the other Australian cities as opposed to Brisbane. And while we're speaking about that,
let's talk about employment, because it's a smaller pool in Brisbane so it
may actually take you longer to find a job. It can be harder to get a job in Brisbane
as opposed to say Sydney or Melbourne where you've got a much bigger pool of opportunities. So
that's another thing that you need to be aware of before you actually come on up here to Brisbane.
Another bad thing about living in Brisbane is the fuel prices. We actually have the
most expensive fuel prices of any capital city in Australia, and what it tends to do is start
at a really high point and then slowly drop down over a period of time. But that period
of time is so unpredictable that you never know when you're going to get the good prices,
and so it'll slowly drop down, it could be over two weeks, it could be over two months.
You never know. It's very unpredictable. And then suddenly it'll jump back up 30 or 40 cents
and then slowly trickle down again. So it's really unpredictable and when it's at the
high point it's absolutely exorbitant prices. So that's another downside to living in Brisbane.
All right, so i'm back home now. Let me give you the last con about living in Brisbane,
then I'm going to give you a couple of things that may be pros or cons depending on what you're into.
But uh yeah, the last con is the trading hours. Things in Brisbane tend to not be open for really
long hours depending on what you're used to. Take the stores on Queen Street Mall
for example. They generally open at 9am, and close at 5pm Monday to Saturday, except for
Friday when they're open until 9pm. But on Sunday they don't open until 10 and they close at 4.
Most cafes will close at three or four o'clock in the afternoon. You can find some
that are open longer, and there are a couple of 24-hour cafes, but generally yeah, if you,
if it's four o'clock and you want a coffee you're probably out of luck. You may have to drive quite
a while to find a place that's actually open. Also supermarkets on Sunday close at 6 p.m. That's just
something that can be a little bit inconvenient, because you know, you might run out of milk at
six o'clock on a Sunday night and you can't actually go to the supermarket to get some more.
You know, the service stations and convenience stores will still be open, but you know, then
you've got to pay the more expensive prices. It's more just a little annoyance than anything that's
majorly inconvenient, but something to be aware of before you move to Brisbane is those limited
trading hours. So i mentioned that there would be a couple of things that could be pros or could be
cons depending on you and the way that you look at things to living in Brisbane. The first thing is
that in Brisbane we don't have daylight savings hours, so if you're coming from say New South
Wales or Victoria, or maybe another country where you have daylight savings, we don't have that. To
be honest, I don't like daylight savings, so I'm happy that Brisbane doesn't have daylight savings,
where basically they shift the time to adjust for, you know, shorter days in winter or longer days
in summer or something. I don't even really know much about it because i try not to think about it
because i just don't like it. That's why I'm happy in Brisbane. But if you're into daylight savings,
yeah, well we don't have that, so that might make you sad. If that makes you sad, why?
Anyway... And then finally the last thing is probably one of the biggest things about Brisbane,
and that is the really different atmosphere. Now this is something that you're either going to love
or hate, or maybe like me over time you'll get used to it, and that is that it's really
really chill. It's a really laid back place and so that's why a lot of people say that Brisbane is
more like a country town, and that's because it's just so laid back. Now putting a positive spin on
it you could say it's not pretentious. You know, people are genuine and you know, they'll take the
time to say hello. You know, you're walking down the street and you come across a stranger, you'll
say "hi". People say "thank you" when they're getting off the bus to the bus driver. You know,
little things like that. It's a lot more friendly. It's got more of a friendly feel which is great,
but also the pace is a little bit slower than say Sydney or Melbourne or you know,
larger international cities. So that may be something you like, it may be something you don't,
but it's something you need to be aware of that, you know, things move a little more slowly
and... but you know, on the plus side people are a little more friendly, I would say. So
yeah, if you're into that chill vibe, Brisbane's a place for you,
if you like the hustle and bustle and fast pace of, you know, busy city living,
maybe not the best place for you. So yeah, something just to, you know, consider among
all the other things when you're thinking about moving here. If you've got any questions, hey,
feel free to leave them in the comments below. And you know, give the video a thumbs up if you learnt
anything or if it helped you in making the decision of whether to move to Brisbane or not.
And yeah, apart from that, subscribe to the channel and i will see you in the next video.