I'm gonna be honest,
Brisbane is a bit of a mess right now.
A lot has changed in the last 12 months and continues to change.
So have these changes made Brisbane a more or less livable city in 2023?
Is it even worth living in Brisbane in 2023
and beyond?
There's no easy answer to that question.
So in this video I'm going to try and give you as much information as possible
so you can decide if Brisbane in 2023 and beyond is the place for you.
I'm going to be looking at recent and future changes to things
like infrastructure, the rental crisis, housing prices.
Brisbane's culture,
and also looking at what kind of person is really well-suited to living in this city.
So how is Brisbane changing?
Let's start with the population.
The population of Brisbane's metropolitan area alone has increased
by almost 100,000 in the four years from 2020 to 2023.
And Queensland is by far Australia's fastest growing state.
A survey by the Property Council of Australia predicts that around 220,000
people are likely to leave the southern states for Queensland in the next five years.
Then there'll be international migration on top of that.
This rapid population growth
is already impacting many areas of life here in Brisbane.
The first is transport infrastructure.
As the population grows, there's more strain on the roads, with the more affordable
housing options and increased new developments being in surrounding areas,
the number of people commuting into the city and major business areas is rapidly increasing.
The problem is that the existing infrastructure wasn't designed to deal with the larger population
and the current volume of traffic, let alone the continued increase.
The council is trying to make changes to reduce the impact, both with things
like road widening and increasing housing density closer to the city.
But the reality is that there's only so much that can be done and the already struggling
road network is likely to become even more congested into the future.
So what about public transport?
Is that a way to avoid dealing with congested roads?
Well, the answer is yes and no.
Depending on where you need to get from and to Brisbane, public transport can be adequate.
Not amazing, but adequate.
But Brisbane covers a really large area and even with the population
growth, it's not densely populated, so it’s difficult to service such a large area well.
In an attempt to improve this situation.
Brisbane City Council are currently working on two major projects
the Cross-River Rail project and the new Brisbane metro.
The Cross River Rail won't open until 2025 and embarrassingly the trains won't be ready
until 2026.
Brisbane Metro, despite the name, is really just two new bus routes,
but with higher capacity electric buses
and it won't be running until 2024.
The problem now in 2023 is that construction
for these projects is actually disrupting existing services.
So while the public transport may be slightly better in the long run,
now in 2023, it's more inconvenient than ever.
And it's not just construction
on these projects that are affecting life in Brisbane in 2023.
There's also other projects like there's two pedestrian bridges
going in across the Brisbane River, one connecting Southbank with the new Queen's
Wharf development and another one here at Kangaroo Point,
which is going to connect Kangaroo Point with the city.
It's too noisy here.
I think I'll go somewhere a bit quieter and keep going.
While these are all exciting projects, that will definitely make it easier
to get around Brisbane and improve the overall quality of life eventually,
for 2023, while they're happening, they do add a little bit of inconvenience
to life in Brisbane, especially closer to the city.
On top of that, some of Brisbane's other infrastructure,
including cycleways and ferry terminals, are still undergoing repairs
after sustaining substantial damage in the 2022 floods.
While these are generally minor inconveniences,
there's something much more serious that can dramatically impact
the livability of this city, at least if you're a renter or hoping to rent here.
Demand for rentals is increasing and supply is way down across Australia.
Rental listings are down 26.3%
year on year to the lowest they've been since February 2003.
This means two things.
Firstly, rental costs are rising dramatically.
While rent rises are happening in all Australian capital cities,
Brisbane is seeing the highest increases for houses, with average annual
increases of 13% in December of 2022,
and the second highest rise for units at 15%, just half a per cent behind Sydney.
That's based on research company CoreLogic's data.
But in October 2022, the Guardian reported that real estate agent Ray
White in West End had urged landlords to increase rents by more than 20%, and the
Chief executive at Tenants Queensland claims that on average
rent increases are around 35%.
There's even a report of one South Brisbane landlord hiking the rent by 60%
from $470 a week to $750.
In many cases, existing renters are given the option of either taking the increases
or having their contract terminated, or at least not renewed.
So rental prices are rising sharply,
but the other effect of demand outstripping supply is that it can be very difficult
to secure a rental, with many potential tenants applying for each property.
The screening process has become extremely strict.
This is becoming quite serious with a lot of people even finding themselves
homeless despite having stable jobs and incomes.
And the situation isn't helped by the increase in short term accommodation on the market,
which is taking away from the longer term things like Airbnb.
The city council is actually trying to do something about it.
They've increased the rates charged for accommodation
that is used for Airbnb and similar short term accommodation,
but I think it's probably going to have more impact on the council's revenue
than actually on the rental situation here in Brisbane.
I'm actually planning a video on how to give yourself the best chances to secure a rental.
And so if that's something you think may be useful for you,
then make sure you're subscribing to the Brisbane Channel
so that you get a notification when that video comes out.
Comparing all Australian capital cities,
renting both houses and units will cost you the most in Canberra.
Renting a house in Brisbane is on average $100
cheaper than in Sydney, but $70 more than in Melbourne.
For units, the trend is similar.
But what if you're looking to buy?
Well, that's better news, thanks in part to the slew of interest rate hikes
we've had from last year, which are likely to continue.
Housing prices have dropped from their peak in June of 2022.
CoreLogic reports the largest ever fall in Brisbane
property prices from June to January: 10.9 percent.
Most experts predict prices will continue to fall in 2023, but that rate will slow.
Comparing Australian capital cities, Brisbane Properties median price is still below
that of Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and below the national median
price of $720,725.
One of the things that may attract people to Brisbane is the different culture.
Until now, Brisbane has kept a lot of the charm of being a smaller city.
The pace of life is much slower and more laid back than the larger capitals Sydney and Melbourne.
Some people love it, while others find things like the trading hours
with very early closing times to be highly frustrating.
But this may be changing.
Most cafes close at around three or four in the afternoon
because there's not enough locals that drink coffee in the afternoon to justify staying open.
Perhaps a larger population and more people who don't have typical Brisbane habits
may change that.
It's 2023, but we still have restaurants
that don't take any orders from as early as 8:00 at night.
Now, a lot of Brisbane locals are kind of worried that all of the Mexicans, as they call people
who come from south of the border, are going to come and change the culture of Brisbane
and turn it into another Sydney or another Melbourne.
But I have a theory that the people who are moving here are moving partly to get away from
the things that they don't like in those cities and they may be just as keen as a local Brisbane
to preserve a lot of the things about Brisbane that make them unique.
But I do hope that we see a gradual change in opening hours for things
like cafes and restaurants because at the moment they do close really early.
One thing that will definitely impact life in Brisbane in 2023 though,
is the approaching 2032 Olympics.
There will be numerous infrastructure projects that will improve the livability of the city
in the long term, like better event venues, roads and transport.
But as we're already seeing, their construction impacts negatively on the livability of the city
until they’re completed. You can expect continued detours, road
and footpath closures and noise for the next few years.
But none of these things really matter if you can't earn a living.
So let's look at the employment situation in Brisbane right now,
and actually it's looking pretty good.
In the latest quarterly State of the States report from CommSec
this year, Queensland's economy was ranked number one in Australia.
Out of eight key indicators,
Queensland ranked number one or number two for five of them, including
first on relative unemployment.
They predicted Queensland would continue to perform strongly for the rest of 2023.
If you're looking for work,
things are promising as many industries are currently experiencing staff shortages.
This is especially good news for skilled migrants.
The four key industries expected to see record employment growth nationally are
health care and social assistance,
accommodation and food services,
professional scientific and technical services, and education and training.
For a more specific list of professions currently in need of workers,
check the link I've put in the video description.
Now, I did make a video on the pros and cons of living
in Brisbane way back in 2021, when many people were moving
from Sydney and Melbourne to Brisbane at the height of the pandemic,
so I won't go into a lot of detail on aspects of life here that haven't changed.
You can go back and watch that later, but there are a couple of important things I feel
I may not have covered deeply enough for people to really know what to expect in Brisbane.
The first is the weather, and let me be blunt:
For some people the climate is heaven, but for many it is absolute hell.
While the average temperatures may look good - no colder
than 22 as a maximum in winter and no hotter than 30 in summer -
The averages don't reflect the extremes.
Brisbane City can get as hot as 43 degrees in the summer
and nights can drop to two degrees.
But that's in Brisbane City.
The further west you go, the more extreme the temperatures can be.
Out Ipswich way, they’ve seen temperatures drop to almost minus five degrees,
and the hottest temperature is an eye watering 44.3 degrees.
But it's not the heat alone that may make you regret moving here.
The humidity can be the real killer, making already hot days and nights feel even more unbearable.
In the years I've been doing these videos,
it's the humidity that is by far the one thing that most people hate about Brisbane.
So if you're used to hot, sticky summer days and don't mind high humidity, you'll be fine here.
But if that kind of weather really gets to you, maybe Brisbane isn't the city for you.
There's plenty of great ways to escape the heat without leaving the city,
but that's from another video.
So subscribe so you don't miss out on that.
Another thing that dramatically affects the livability of the city is the rate of crime,
and a lot of locals have the perception
that crime is getting out of control and it's just increased massively.
So I did a bit of searching and found two sets of data.
The first showed the nine-year change up
until 2021, and for each area of Brisbane
but one, there was a decrease in crime over those nine years.
The only one that increased was Brisbane South, which only increased
very slightly: 0.7. For more up to date information,
I looked at the Queensland crime map, and for the five Brisbane LGAs,
yes, there is a general upward trend in the rate of crime that's occurring,
but it is a very gradual change and it does seem to be in line with the population.
So these reports of crime just
massively exploding are very exaggerated and I think people have this idea
more because we're talking about crimes as they happen more on social media,
and the mainstream media have really been highlighting certain crimes that have been
occurring recently, some high profile crimes
that make it seem like there's a crime epidemic.
Yes, in some parts of Queensland there is an explosion in the rate of crime,
but specifically in Brisbane, it's certainly not as much as people are feeling.
Brisbane is still a very safe place as far as crime
rates go.
There's absolutely no way that I could talk about changes happening in Brisbane
without talking about the Queen's Wharf development.
I know I've talked about other infrastructure,
but this thing is going to radically transform the face of the city.
It's going to have all of the features that you see on the screen right now.
But the big question is when it's going to be finished.
They are saying the second half of 2023, but there's been a lot of delays due to weather.
So who really knows?
Love it or hate it, this is going to absolutely transform
the entertainment and living landscape of Brisbane.
Now, I know that I told you that I'd tell you about what kind of person is actually suited
to living in Brisbane so you could work out if this was the right city for you or not.
But while I was making this video I thought, hey, it might be actually fun to make a little quizz
that you could do to get a score for your suitability for life in Brisbane.
So I'm actually going to save that for another video.
If you want to find out more about Brisbane, I'd suggest this playlist here
that's got a whole lot of different videos about Brisbane.
And if you haven't already, check out this video in particular
and I'll see you on the next one.