Queensland Development Hot Spots
Brisbane City and Mermaid Beach-Broadbeach have retained the top two positions in Queensland’s development hot spots table for the first half of the 2019-20 financial year.
Cairns City has been a major mover on the back of substantial Other Building approval activity coming in third from 21st position in the previous financial year. Other big movers have been Hope Island (5th up from 47th), Mermaid Waters (11th up a whopping 185 places from 196th), Pallara-Willawong (12th up from 35th), and West End (14th up from 41st).
The rise of the new hot spots has pushed previous strong performers down including Maroochydore-Kuluin (9th down from 5th), Caloundra-West (10th down from 4th), and West End (15th down from 6th). This financial year has also seen some of Brisbane’s inner city hot spots drop right off such as Fortitude Valley (64th down from 8th), and St Lucia (62nd down from 7th).
Brisbane region
The Brisbane CBD remains the major development hot spot in the Brisbane region entirely on the strength of its commercial development activity including continuing building approvals for Queens Wharf. Notably residential approvals have dwindled in the CBD to a point where it ranked 488th out of the 528 SA2s across Queensland for Residential Building approvals.
The make-up of Brisbane’s top 10 development hot spots is a mix of inner and middle ring locations, as well as outer new development areas. Development activity is still relatively strong in the inner Brisbane suburbs of Newstead-Bowen Hills, West End, and South Brisbane, though this is increasingly coming from non-residential development. The last six months has seen development activity spread to the next ring of suburbs including Morningside-Seven Hills, Indooroopilly, and Greenslopes.
Two of Brisbane’s remaining greenfield residential development areas have seen strong residential development activity over the past six months with Pallara-Willawong rising from 35th to 12th position across the State whilst Rochedale-Burbank sits at 26th across the State, though falling from 17th position last financial year.
The Auto Mall and other commercial and industrial development activity sees the Brisbane Airport maintain a high development hot spot position (27th) in Brisbane and Queensland overall.
Gold Coast – Logan
Mermaid Beach-Broadbeach retains its position as the region’s number one hot spot, ranking only behind the Brisbane CBD across the whole of Queensland. This has been principally as a result of strong residential building approval activity where it ranked first across Queensland. Hope Island has seen strong Residential Building approvals pushing it to second in Queensland and 5th for Total Building approval activity – a significant jump up from 47th last year.
Jimboomba was the 5th hottest location for Other Building approvals in Queensland which when combined with solid Residential Building approvals has placed it 7th across all of Queensland, well up from 14th the previous year. Logan also achieved representation through strong Residential Building approvals in Greenbank, and Boronia Heights-Park Ridge.
The big mover on the Gold Coast has been Mermaid Waters up to 3rd for Residential Building activity on the back of significant high rise apartment activity. This pushed the suburb to 11th position overall for Total Building activity in Queensland up from 196th the year prior.
Sunshine Coast
Maroochydore-Kuluin is the top development hot spot on the Sunshine Coast, taking over from Caloundra West, though both locations have dropped on the overall Queensland rankings from last year. Residential Building approvals have been the major driver for overall building activity with both locations recording almost $100 million in approvals over the six-month period. Landsborough retains third place for Total Building approvals on the Sunshine Coast on the back of strong greenfield residential activity whilst also retaining its position in Queensland’s top 20 hot spots.
Parrearra-Warana and Noosa Hinterland are new entrants to the Sunshine Coast top five hot spots recording solid Residential Building approvals and modest Other Building approvals. Notably Parrearra-Warana has jumped to 25th in Queensland overall up from 171st the previous year. This is likely to have been driven by Stockland’s Oceanside and Bokarina Beach developments.
Moreton Bay region
Stockland’s Newport project has pushed Scarborough-Newport-Moreton into the top development hot spot position in the region, up from third spot last year. Strong residential building approvals have ranked it 13th in Queensland overall up from 30th spot in the previous year. North Lakes drops down to second spot in Moreton with Caboolture dropping out of the top five. A slow down in development activity at the Petrie Mill has also seen Petrie drop from inside the top five hot spots in the region.
A blend of Residential and Other Building approvals have pushed Burpengary, Narangba, and Murrumba Downs-Griffin into the Moreton Region’s top five hot spots and into or near Queensland’s top 50.
Ipswich region
Collingwood Park-Redbank retains the number one development hot spot in the region through continued strong Other Building approval activity. Despite this it has dropped from 3rd in Queensland overall to 6th. Carole Park has moved into second spot in Ipswich and 21st in Queensland overall, up a massive 215 spots from 236th last year. This has been primarily driven by industrial development activity in the suburb.
Springfield Lakes maintains 3rd position in the region and moves up slightly in Queensland’s top 25 development hot spots through ongoing residential building approval activity. Meanwhile development activity has slowed in Ripley which has seen it drop from 2nd to 4th in the region and to 30th (from 9th) across Queensland.
Wacol has made a major move into Ipswich’s top five hot spots and up to 33rd from 142nd across Queensland. This has been driven by activity associated with the Australian Defence Department’s Armoured Vehicle manufacturing program.
Toowoomba Darling Downs region
Development activity in the region has remained centred around Toowoomba with the West, East, and Central suburbs featuring in the top 4 development hot spots, similar to the previous year. Toowoomba West secured top spot jumping from 41st across Queensland overall in 2018-19 to 14th in 2019-20 (YTD) through substantial Other Building approval activity. Kingaroy, which actually sits in the Wide Bay-Burnett region (not compiled for this study) ranked second which was associated with a big jump to 24th in Queensland overall, up from 220th last year. Toowoomba East also rose significantly from 160th in 2018-19 to 77th this year for Total Building approvals in Queensland.
2019-20 is shaping as a year of improvement for Toowoomba with Wilsonton (106th up from 218th) also rising up the Queensland development hot spot ranks through a mix of Residential and Other Building approvals.
Townsville region
Townsville is experiencing a statewide rise in its development hot spots with the top five all rising in their hot spot ranks across Queensland. Townsville City-North Ward takes top spot and rises to 22nd in Queensland up from 126th through strong Other Building approvals. Hyde Park moves into second place and into the Queensland top 50 from 135th the year before. Condon-Rasmussen is the biggest mover up a massive 351 places to 115th on the back of strong Other Building approval activity.
Deeragun has maintained its position in the regional top five principally through active Residential Building approvals whilst Oonoonba takes fifth place through a mix of development activity.
Garbutt-West End is the notable exception dropping from first in the region and 18th in Queensland overall to 419th.
Cairns region
Cairns is possibly Queensland’s brightest development region, incorporating 3 locations in the State’s top 50, more than any region outside SEQ. This includes Cairns City as Queensland’s 3rd hottest area for development (No. 2 for Other Building approvals). This is being driven by activity associated with the Cairns Convention Centre and Cairns Central shopping centre. Atherton has moved into second spot and 20th across Queensland (up from 244th) through the approval for work on the Atherton Hospital. Daintree takes third spot and slips into Queensland top 50 development hot spots up from a lowly 389th the year before. This was driven by major renovation work to the Sheraton Mirage at Port Douglas.
Development continues at Trinity Beach-Smithfield keeping it in the region’s top five whilst Redlynch takes 5th spot on the back of a mix of development activity.
Mackay Whitsunday region
Airlie Whitsundays retains top spot in the region as recovery work to the Whitsunday resorts of Hayman and Daydream continues. This work kept the location in Queensland’s top 20 development hot spots. All of the top five development hot spots in the region showed improvement from their previous positions in Queensland particularly Sarina (99th up from 321st), and Eimeo-Rural View (93rd up from 234th). Other Building approval activity is driving development in the region as was the case in the previous year.
Fraser Coast region
Little separates the top four development hot spots in the Fraser Coast Region over the past six months. Gympie edges Gympie-North (88th) which sits one place ahead of Booral-River Heads (89th) on Queensland’s rankings overall. Piabla-Eli Waters and Urangan-Wondunna complete the top five though dropping from higher rankings in the past year.
Residential Building approval activity has been the prime driver behind development in the Fraser Coast region with the top five hot spots all sitting within Queensland’s top 100 Residential Building approval ranks.
Bundaberg region
Bargara-Burnett Heads sits well ahead of all other locations as the region’s hottest development spot also ranking 51st across Queensland compared to 233rd for Bundaberg Region-South in second place. Bargara-Burnett Heads is seeing solid Residential and Other Building approval activity whilst development activity across the remainder of the region is disparate.
Overall the region appears to be on track to do slightly better than last year, though this is primarily due to the strong activity in Bargara-Burnett Heads.
Central Queensland region
Yeppoon retains the top development spot in the Central Queensland region through solid Residential Building approvals. The remaining top five hot spot positions in the region are filled by locations in close proximity to the Rockhampton CBD including the industrial area of Park Avenue, and part industrial part residential area of Parkhurst-Kawana. The suburban centres of The Range-Allenstown (4th), and Norman Gardens (5th) are new entrants to the top five.
Overall development activity is down slightly on this time last year and relatively low compared to the other study regions in Queensland.