Ongoing growth factors powering Brisbane market - John McGrath

Last year was a landmark year for Brisbane, with the Olympics host city briefly taking the silver medal position among Australia’s capital cities in the property price stakes.

In May 2024, Brisbane’s median dwelling value leap-frogged Canberra to record the nation’s second highest city median dwelling value, behind Sydney’s gold medal spot. Brisbane last held this second placed position way back in 1997.

The achievement reflected strong price growth over the past four years. Since the start of COVID-19 to June 2024, Brisbane median dwelling prices have soared by a staggering 61.5%, compared to a combined capital city price growth of 32.6% in the same period.

As discussed in the McGrath Report 2025, there are a range of likely factors behind the price growth.

Firstly, Brisbane has continued to experience steady population growth, thanks in the main to overseas and domestic migration.

Already burgeoning from an exodus of locked down Sydneysiders and Melburnians fleeing north during the pandemic, Brisbane’s population surged by a further 3.1% in FY23, reaching a total of 2.71 million, according to the Bureau of Statistics. This was the third highest population growth rate of any capital city in the country, after Perth and Melbourne.