Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Realty Talk - “A very competitive landscape” - REIQ

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Queensland's property market, once trailing behind its East Coast counterparts, has surged post-pandemic with a 60% increase in values. Brisbane now boasts the second highest median home value in the country for the first time in nearly 30 years. Despite negative press on affordability and rental issues, the market shows resilience. Today Bushy explores Queensland's property future with Antonia Mercorella, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Subscribe for free to Realty Talk on the Property Hub channel, join our community and get more insights here: https://linktr.ee/propertyhubau Property Hub is a collaboration between Bushy Martin from KnowHow Property, Kevin Turner from Realty, Andrew Montesi from Apiro Marketing and Apiro Media, and Australia’s largest independent podcast network DM Media.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've got agents who will tell you they're holding an open and often at the first open they're already fielding offers. Sometimes you're selling after the first open or you might stay, you might keep it open for a few more weeks. Multiple offers are still quite common up here. It's still very, very, it's a very competitive landscape. That's Antonia Mercurella, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Queensland's property market, once trailing behind its East Coast counterparts, has surged post-pandemic with a 60% increase in values. And Brisbane now boasts the second highest median home value in the country

for the first time in nearly 30 years. Despite negative press on affordability and rental issues, the market is definitely showing resilience. And today, Bushy explores Queensland's property future with Antonia. Before we start, I want to thank our supporters and content partners, Realty.com.au, BMT Tax Depreciation, Know How Property Finance, Get Rare Property and Apiro Marketing. You'll find us on all podcast players, the Property Hub,

Southern Cross Oz Stereo Network, Hot Copper and all socials. there as the property hub collective. Property deductions can save you thousands of dollars each year. To make sure you maximize deductions, you need to work with the most experienced quantity surveyor in the country. BMT Tax Depreciation is the leading specialist in the industry. They've completed over 700,000 tax deduction schedules for residential investment and commercial properties Australia-wide. BMT guarantee to find double your fee in the first full financial year deductions call bmt on 1-300-728-726 today for an obligation free quote realty talk exclusive to the property hub now for the decade prior to covid queensland property had

the greatest potential but despite some incremental growth in houses and pretty much flatlining unit performance the big potential never quite seemed to eventuate and the state always seemed to end up being the bridesmaid rather than the bride, as it seemed to trail well behind its big east coast cousins. But with the escalating access to lifestyle that's been accelerated post-pandemic, this has all changed as the Sunshine State's been enjoying really stellar performance, with Queensland property values up over 60% right across the board since the onset of COVID, and Brisbane recently moving to the second highest median home value in the country, a position it just hasn't held for nearly 30 years. And all of this, despite the deluge of

negative press about housing affordability in the rental crisis along with a raft of tax grabs and restrictive rental reforms. Now you may be thinking is this all just a short-term catch-up flash in the pan like other states or is Queensland poised for long-term ongoing sustainable growth? We'd all love to know what's really happening in Queensland and where its property future lies because based on mainstream media reports and from the outside looking in it all seems a bit confusing and contradictory. So to look beneath the fear-mongering headlines, we need to lift the hood to unpack the facts by considering the balance of current and future uplift as well as downside drag factors across locations, property types and price points. And there's

no one better place to do this than Antonia Mercurella, who's one of the state's top 10 most influential people in real estate and a close to 15-year veteran CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. So welcome to Australia's longest running and most popular Property Show, Antonia. Thank you. Pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having me. Great to get you on and we've been keen to get you on for quite some time because we know you share some really good insights on the pulse of what's happening in property in the Sunshine State. But I guess just to kick things off, by starting at the sort of current property conditions and influences in Queensland, before we then start to look at the future, can you give us your overall read on

current Queensland property performance conditions? Yeah, absolutely. I think it's been a real rollercoaster journey. I think, as you mentioned in that introduction, we were moving at quite a modest pace for a long time up here, all waiting with bated breath for our turn to come. Steady, consistent growth. I remember putting out media releases with that consistent language steady she goes um and of course then COVID hit and and to be fair even before the pandemic we had started to see property prices on the rise and it felt like we were seeing evidence that we're on the cusp of something big and then of course the pandemic came and uh and as as I'm sure everyone knows there was that moment of where we all just paused and held our breath

for a series of months and then of course what came after that was nothing short of extraordinary we saw property prices moving at at a pace that i'm not sure we've ever seen that before in this state and that was of course driven not just by local demand but we saw extraordinarily strong interstate demand as well so of course what we saw was that we became the number one destination for interstate migration, but at record levels. We were seeing people from New South Wales, Victoria, and, of course, that really helped to accelerate that price growth. These were people who were selling up at the prices at Sydney

and Melbourne prices and at that time coming to Queensland and really being pleasantly surprised at how far their dollar at that time could go in places like Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, those very popular tourist destinations. But of course, what we also saw, which was really interesting, is that regional Queensland became incredibly popular as well at that time. And that was both a combination of people from interstate moving directly to regional Queensland, or in many instances, we were hearing stories of people selling up in places like Brisbane or the Gold coast and then moving to regional Queensland and in many cases they were able to do that

and be mortgage free so that's been really extraordinary watching that and then of course as we all know what also happened is we were spending more time at home and as a result not only did we see the sales market moving very rapidly the rental market changed very dramatically as well so suddenly you weren't so keen you could be ships in the night and have a co-tenancy but if you're all working from home you don't necessarily want to be seeing each other so what we saw in rental in the rental market is that people move from co-tenancy into single tenancy so of course that created this extra demand for rental properties and and that was exacerbated by that interstate experience as well so really we saw both the rental market and the

sales market just moving at such a rapid pace rent started going up because of course demand was very high and supply simply didn't didn't meet that demand and of course the rules the basic fundamental rules of economics took over now look it's fair to say that the market has slowed somewhat since that very frenetic pace but having said that it's still extraordinary what we're seeing we're still seeing this market and when I say this market I'm conscious that there's no such thing as a single market in Queensland that's true of any jurisdiction but in particular in Queensland that's the case but what's really pleasing is is each quarter when we look at what's happening we're continuing to see really strong growth across the southeast corner those those tourist destinations or

lifestyle destinations are perennially popular we know that but regional Queensland as well is continuing to experience a very significant growth and then not surprisingly we've now seen that when we look at units and apartments once upon a time units not that long ago we were talking about the glut of apartments and units in Brisbane in particular. And now what we're seeing is they're being gobbled up because, of course, affordability is driving people to those units. So we've actually seen price growth in that unit market actually overtake price growth in the housing market across virtually all parts of Queensland, which is really fascinating. But I think again tells the story of our growing population but also talks to that affordability

concern because of course there's there's two sides to this uh i'm i'm constantly asked is price growth the good thing and i say well it depends on on which side of the ledger you sit on so of course um if you're fortunate enough to be a property owner you're probably going to be pleased uh that the value of your property is on the rise but of course we know that it's incredibly challenging at the moment, and that affordability is top of mind, not just for first-home buyers, certainly that particular cohort are particularly impacted, but even at a broader level, people are really struggling to afford to pay their rent or to afford to buy a new property. Yeah, the old bank of mum and dad is going to become more relevant as we move on, and as the

Boomers are sort of moving through on their equity stores are increasing. It's certainly going to be a big source to help out, particularly first-time buyers and first-time investors, too, for that matter, as far as that goes. You've touched well on in terms of the regional exercise and the property types. Is there any trends that you're seeing in the sort of price point levels? You mentioned affordability, but are there any variations and changes from a price point that you're seeing other some sectors moving well, others not so? what's your read on that side? Yeah, so we're definitely seeing that apartment and unit market moving at a very rapid pace. That's very popular, not just with first home owners, but also with investors. Investor activity has, we've seen a really significant uptick there. I mean,

it's what's fascinating is when I first came into this role, we would be talking about million-dollar suburbs, and there were hardly any in Brisbane or in Queensland. And now, of course, million-dollar sales are part of the normal landscape. The Brisbane median house price is now well over the $1 million mark. But where we're seeing that there's massive demand and very limited listings, of course, is everyone's looking at that sub $750,000, $750,000, $800,000, maybe if you're prepared to stretch yourself that's where people want to be and that is incredibly challenging that market is very tight so to give you an idea here in Brisbane if you look at the Brisbane LGA it's going to be virtually impossible to buy anything in that kind of price range in

terms of a freestanding house so then of course you start looking further afield at Greater Brisbane and look when you're prepared to look at Greater Brisbane that does open up a lot more opportunities But one of the big challenges that we have up here is that there are grants available and stamp duty concessions available, but what we know is that a lot of those are exclusively focused on new. So they're really about boosting construction and supporting the construction sector. Now, the challenge that we have with that is that if that stamp duty concession only extends to new construction, we've got a problem at the moment up here in Queensland, unfortunately. We've got some supply constraints, not exclusive to Queensland, but trade is in short supply. We've still got that pressure of what it costs to build up here. um our um our construction time frames have really stretched out across both houses and

apartments and the reality is that a lot of what's being built now developers are largely focusing their efforts on high-end departments and and they're not going to be what what first home buyers or the everyday queenslander is able to buy so so that's the challenge so of course established freestanding homes are popular but rare as hen's teeth at the moment and uh and it's a really really competitive market and then the other thing that we're seeing of course is that we've also got a rental market that's still very very tight and and rents have gone up quite significantly again they've grown at a pace that we've not really seen probably ever in the history of Queensland what makes that challenging is not just meeting that weekly rent but of course if

you're trying to meet that weekly rent and at the same time you're trying to um put together that that all-important ideally 20 deposit that that that finish line or rather that starting line even just keeps getting further and further away so there's um so there's there's certainly some challenges definitely is uh and you certainly touched on some of the supply side issues there I know that listing levels are also historically down. What's your thoughts around that side? Yeah, it's really interesting because people know that they can get good money. There's a confidence around getting good money.

I think the challenge is that people are concerned about listing their property without then having somewhere to go because that's quite a common story that you sell and you sell at a really good price, you're high-fiving each other or you might be high-fiving your friends over what you got, then you've got to go out and buy in the same market. And, of course, it's a really competitive market. On the flip side, you can, of course, go and procure something to buy, but then, of course, often you need to make that contract subject

to the sale of your property. And in this market, unless you're offering an out-of-the-world figure, the vendor of the other property is likely to say, I've actually got a simpler contract. In fact, I've got multiple offers over here. So I think that's the challenge. It's not that people aren't confident about what they're going to get. I don't think there's nervousness around that. The nervousness is around where will I go and buy? Yeah, I think what's also influencing that to some degree

is that with the interest rate increases, borrowing capacities would drop pretty substantially. So all of a sudden, people who were used to being able to borrow the amount they needed to do the right size change suddenly find themselves cut a little bit short. So that'll probably even itself out when interest rates start to drop again sometime next year. But in the meantime, it's probably logjamming the market

a little bit as far as that goes. So, yeah. I think that's a really good point. It's really interesting. Of course, the baby boomers, and of course, they're often criticised for having been the beneficiaries of many policies that have favoured them. Of course, they're in a great position because interest rates going

up don't really have an impact on them. And, of course, we're also hearing about these record levels of cash contracts, which are almost certainly the baby boomers. So they're in the driver's seat. they're probably not panicking each time the RBA meets but certainly you know so those 65 plus they're in a they're in the driver's seat but what we do know is that if you're a mortgage holder in that plus 35 range up to about 50 and maybe a little bit over that you're really feeling the pinch at the moment and then just to your earlier point about your borrowing capacity as well

um i'm having lots of conversations with people who are saying i can't understand why the bank won't loan me money uh i i i own a good wage you know it feels like previously i was able to i was able to do that more easily so i just think um there are a lot more constraints and i think we're all thinking a lot more about the amount that we're prepared to borrow and the level of commitment we're prepared to take on in this landscape where we really don't know what's going to happen. We're continuing to see the RBA watching and monitoring. So it's a tricky time.

It is a tricky time. And I think without going off on a tangent, I think we've become the most over-compliant country in the world. And there's layer upon layer of risk protection now on everything you touch when it comes to lending or property to the point where it's probably the pendulum swung a little bit too far.

So I think what will change that over time is commercial need because we're already seeing the banks who aren't doing the volumes of business that they're used to starting to loosen the belt a little bit to sort of entice some additional lending on that front. So I think market forces will drive it. But I'd like to dive now into the demand side and get your feeling on the influences in Queensland at the moment in terms of population, migration and housing demand.

What's your rate on that school? Yeah, well, we've still got the highest net interstate migration in the country. So we're also seeing, of course, the return of international migration. So there's no doubt our population growth is on the rise. Demand is still very strong. We're still seeing that that average number of people in the home is still lower than what we have historically seen.

So we know that demand is still pretty ferocious. That's still being challenged by the fact that new supply is very, very slow. And, of course, two years ago or thereabouts, our government held a housing summit to address this issue. And what we also know is that we have one of the highest, if not the highest, rental population in the nation. So about 36% of Queenslanders rent their home and so what we're seeing is if you're a renter and you're trying to find a property, it's challenging and as a result, we've seen the average length of tenancies growing significantly because most people recognise that they should stay put, that that's safer.

even if they're not thrilled about the rent being increased they understand that there's a real chance that they may get left without anything so they're sitting put so certainly there's still a lot of demand for rental properties uh and again uh the vacancy rates speaks volumes about that we don't use the word crisis liberally but there is i think it's fair to say you would define it As a crisis, we're sitting at below 1% across Queensland. In some parts of the state, vacancy rates are, you know, a mere 0.2% in some extreme instances. And just for some context, we classify a healthy rental market

as one that sits at 2.6% to 3%. So we're well outside of that territory. And then, look, the sales market is in a similar place. we've still got we've got agents who will tell you that they're holding an open and often at the first open they're already fielding offers sometimes you're selling after the first open or you might stay you might keep it open for a few more weeks multiple offers are still quite common up here it's still very very it's a very competitive landscape and what and what's also driving that is that again established housing is is where everyone's going because uh as we all

know builders are going bust we're seeing a record number of of of builders uh going into administration or or shutting their doors and uh and i think people feel afraid about buying off the plan uh in that kind of an environment so that's also driving people uh to that established housing market but but look the reality is there's not a lot there's even if you did want to buy something off the plan as i mentioned earlier there's very little on offer and certainly there's not there's not a great deal of affordable options in that new construction area totally with you know the material costs jumping 40 percent then all of a sudden existing properties looks much more attractive. So it's concentrating all that energy into that. Look, Antonia, stay with us

because we're going to take a very short break and we'll be back to discuss more, particularly on the rental side in just a minute. Successful property investment is a game of finance. Do you have the right team and the right game plan? Realty Talk is brought to you by Know How Property. More than mortgage brokers, Bushy Martin and his team of investment architects set you up with a sustainable strategy structured to lower your costs tax risk and stress while increasing your capacity for growth know-how has helped over 1 900 homeowners and investors secure more than 800 million dollars in property wealth so get set to live more work less and live your legacy. Want to know how to invest in your freedom? Visit knowhowproperty.com.au.

This is Realty Talk powered by realty.com.au. Now, welcome back to the continuation of our update on Queensland property future with long-term CEO, Antonio Mercurella from the REIQ. Now, Antonio, let's now focus on the rental side of the equation. You touched on it before the break. I'd love for you to just expand on your thoughts on the challenges and what's happening in the rental market, if you can. Yeah, of course. Well, as I've already mentioned, we're experiencing unprecedented tight vacancy rates. And of course, that's translating into high rents. Not surprisingly, we have seen rents growing at a pace that we've not seen before. Now, again, there have been lots of politicians have criticised the greedy landlords.

So I want to acknowledge that rents have gone up and they have gone up at a faster pace than what we have been accustomed to seeing. But important to understand that that's also happened at a time where we've also seen investor costs, of course, going up. And there's also, without getting too detailed about this, there's plenty of evidence and data available which actually shows that investor costs have actually risen at a faster rate than what rent growth has. Nonetheless, it has been very challenging for renters. And so not surprisingly, there's a certain amount of politicking that goes on around this. So we have seen, of course, the Queensland government responding to what's happening in the rental market. We've gone through five rounds of legislative reform in that rental sphere in as many years. And, of course, we've seen a number of private members' bills being introduced into Parliament to try and cap rents and to stop investors from being able to increase the rent.

So it's fair to say that it's been a challenging time all around, certainly for renters, but also for investors and absolutely for property managers who are those in the middle trying to facilitate those relationships. And I think what's also creating difficulties and adding fuel to this is that, of course, we know that investors do about 95%, private investors do about 95% of the heavy lifting when it comes to housing Queenslanders. We haven't done a good job of keeping up with our social housing construction. We have a massive waiting list. And, of course, what that means is that those people who are the most vulnerable in our community and really should be better protected and have social housing available to them haven't been able to get access to that and have ended up in the private rental market. And, of course, they have been particularly impacted by these rental conditions. And Queensland's not alone, but of course we have these terrible scenes, people living in cars, family living in cars, people living in tents, absolutely heartbreaking and so difficult to watch. And I think we all are left aghast at the idea of this happening in Australia.

And I think that has created this real tension and a real us and them and has fueled this real anger towards investors, which I think is really unfortunate. And some may argue I'm saying this with a vested interest, and perhaps I am. but I think it has been unfair. Investors are being blamed for this crisis and I always say that's giving investors or giving us way too much credit, credit we don't deserve, because really this does come down to a shortage. If we had more properties, we wouldn't be in this position. So it's a complex problem and so what you'll find is that the community wants to blame investors wants to blame foreigners wants to blame peak bodies like ours blame the developers

but the reality is that this problem didn't emerge overnight really it's a supply issue and I think really what we're all finally even the politicians themselves are conceding supply is how we fix it but we're playing catch up in Queensland unfortunately and so the reality years, I don't see us seeing an improvement for some time yet. We really need to get cracking and we've got to play catch up as well as trying to cater for the future, which I think is extremely challenging when we've still got those constraints that we've touched on, a shortage in trades people. We've still got construction costs that are still very, very high. And all of these things, you look at the data which we look at on a regular basis everything is moving in a southerly direction

the number of approvals is going down construction levels is going down um and the time that it takes to construct is is is prolonged is stretched out so sadly those are all the things that that we don't that that we're that we we know need to be fixed but none of them are easy things to turn around? No, and very well said, because I think we're in a zone where we've got governments at all levels that are pretty much Teflon in terms of pointing their fingers at the private sector to solve everything. And we know that the private sector is driven by profitability needs, that people need to make money to survive. So that's never going to work. And if you look at where all of this supply side issue started, it was when governments pretty much across the country

stopped providing public housing themselves back in the in the 70s and it's it's taken this long to become the you know the the crisis that it's that it's talked about but there needs to i think governments at all levels need to actually step up in in two two fashions uh antonio i'd love your thoughts on this one in the actual provision of house not throwing money out and expecting the private sector to build because that's just going to exacerbate the same issues but also on top of the physical supply themselves, to have a look at what worked really well back in the late 80s, early 90s, when governments, again, at all levels, started incentivising mum and dad investors, who are pretty much the silent majority, to actually encourage them to open

up existing stock that's going to absorb some of the issues. So I'd love your take on that, actually. Yeah, I think I would agree. we've often said to government, you need to stop focusing on demonising investors and punitive measures and you need to start thinking about how to incentivise. We know that there are a number of vacant properties in Queensland and around Australia. We also know that those properties are sometimes vacant for really valid reasons. We know that we live in a, obviously up here, the Sunshine State, we're a tourism, we've got a strong tourism sector. So sometimes what

we hear is that investors are saying, I'll put it on the short-term letting market so that I can avoid what they feel are onerous and unfair tenancy laws. And of course, and again, this is not exclusive. We've continued to see new taxes, tax hikes, or more to the point, taxes simply not being reviewed so really outdated taxes that haven't been looked at for decades even though property prices have gone up so much so I think I know that that is never a popular topic because there's a view that you shouldn't be helping investors you shouldn't be incentivizing but the reality is you can't have it both ways if you're going to the reality is the vast majority of our renters live in properties that are owned by private investors now unless government decides

to implement a very significant policy and develop a shift and say actually we're going to start building and we're going to become the primary provider of of that rental housing then then you're really relying on those private investors to do that and the reality is that and it's always is a difficult conversation to have because we're talking about homes we're talking about housing so when you rent a property it becomes your home but of course we have to also be realistic in recognizing that it is also an asset that belongs to someone else and therefore that invokes certain commercial realities now those two things can work well together they don't have to be mutually exclusive. But we do have to recognise that investors can make a choice about where they

invest their money. Not surprisingly, we say you should invest in property, but we know that there are other assets and other asset classes where you have much greater freedom. So it's that balancing act. Of course, tenants need to have certain fundamental statutory rights. It's really important that you've got a really strong statutory framework that provides adequate protection and certainty for tenants. I'm all for that. But you also need to be sensible and recognise that there is an owner at the other end of that property that has, in the majority of cases, has mortgage repayments to make, has various other costs to make. And so each time you chip away you you tax them at a higher rate or you tax them a little bit more or you say I'm

going to yet again implement legislative reform that diminishes the power or the choice that you have that just chips away at their confidence and of course eventually they reach a tipping point and say I'm all out now I know that there are always people out there who say well that's great that's what we want we want investors to leave in droves and and there's this very simple very simplistic argument that if vent if investors were to go it would mean that everyone else could buy now the reality is it's it's that's far too simplistic that's not the way it works people sometimes people choose to rent people sometimes prefer to rent there are some people who simply realistically will not be in a position

to be eligible for a mortgage. And that's just silly. So I think we've got to start thinking about the really critical role that investors play and how do we encourage further investment, how do we make sure that investors stay in Queensland and continue to provide that property, and, of course, How do we continue to ensure that we're creating a pipeline for future investment in Queensland? And I think what's really interesting is the way that private investors have suddenly become demonised as if they're, we often hear them being referred to as greedy and unsophisticated.

And all of a sudden, there's this new rhetoric, not just in Queensland, but all around the nation about build to rent and institutional investors. And there's this view that institutional investors are fairer. Rents won't go up as much. They'll be better owners, better lessors. They'll look after the property more. And I've got to wonder about where that logic comes from. I'm not anti-build to rent. I think BTR has a place, there's no doubt about it. But I know plenty of people who are investors

and take their responsibilities very seriously and are good people who do care about their tenants, but they also care about making sure that they're able to have a sustainable investment. And so I think we've got to stop viewing this as good and bad, evil and good, really black and quite simplistic arguments that just create this divide that's really not very helpful at all. Very well said. I think for any system to be sustainable, it's got to be win, win, win all round. It can't be one wins and the other loses. So to demonise investors in that sense, who, let's face it, over 60% of mum and dad investors are losing money on their property each and every year in the hope that they're going to gain from the capital growth over time. But as you said,

It's going to get to a tipping point where it's just not affordable to continue to hold. And once they go, it's not going to make it easy for other people to snaffle up those properties. And BTR, as you mentioned, or build to rent, isn't going to satisfy where the rental crisis is. It's certainly going to be good for more lifestylers who can afford more and are looking for that almost resort style, self-contained accommodation platform. But BTR doesn't work when we start to talk of the social housing end and the average family in. So I think they're missing the point there

and that embracing investors as the solution rather than treating them as a problem is where things will start if we can get politicians and policymakers smart enough to recognise that it's staring them right in the face. So look, just to close on this, given the sort of raft of law changes

and the year upon year of restrictions that you've been seeing in Queensland, and it's rippled out across most of the other states as well, by the way, uh how can investors best navigate them and and protect their investments in this this sort of environment what's your thoughts there yeah it's a good question and i think um always my answer is going to be particularly given how complex the legislative landscape has become in queensland using a professional to manage your property is always essential but but even one step before

then I would say really you need to invest wisely Queensland is a is an enormous state and if you're not from Queensland it's difficult to know where you should be investing there's plethora of data available but there's nothing quite like using someone boots on the ground with local knowledge so I think first of all really researching where you're buying it and by the way it's not always if it's an invest if you're an investor and again depending on what your objectives are it's not always the capital city and again it will depend on what you're looking for but we know that at the moment regional Queensland is offering some really extraordinary yields that are actually better than what you'd get in the capital city now again

each investor has their own strategy so I have to be careful there but I think using a professional to help you to select the right property based on your needs and wants and then of course having someone who looks after the property for you manages it uh we've heard some really um some some tragic stories about uh self-managed investors not understanding smoke alarm compliance and that and that of course has resulted in in a in in various incidents where people have been either injured or or fatal house fires which is just unimaginable and dreadful but But also I think there is so much you have to know in Queensland. There's very stringent rules about which document you use

and how quickly you need to give a document and how quickly bonds are lodged and what you can charge. The list goes on and on. You know, even for someone, I'm a lawyer by background, by trade, and I look at the legislation and I scratch my head sometimes trying to navigate it. And of course, I think trying to do that on your own is quite dangerous and risky. And so I would always say, be sensible and engage a professional.

That's a great risk mitigation strategy. 100% agree. I often say that the most important person in any investor's team is a really good property manager because they're going to have the longest relationship with you and the property of anyone else. and solving and trying to tick the boxes and join the dots on the legislation now given as you say you've only got to miss by a day in terms of issuing informants suddenly you put yourself at major risk so a lot of self-managed landlords just don't know what they don't know in terms of

the potential strife that they're putting themselves in so a property manager who has the ability to solve a rubik's cube of legislation very quickly is an absolute must and a growing need given the complexity that keeps getting added to the legislative slide of the whole equation. So look, great insights, Antonia. We'll now take another quick break before revealing your thoughts on the future of property across the Sunshine State. So stay with us for more. Are you curious about harnessing your super for property investment? Propel your future with the enlightening online seminar, The Ultimate Masterclass to Self-Managed Superfund Property Mastery.

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Unlock bonus content now as a premium subscriber. Now continuing our great feature update on property conditions in Queensland with REIQ CEO Antonio Mercurella, Let's now turn to the future using our crystal ball and our wide-angle binoculars to get your thoughts, Antonia, on medium to long-term property prospects across the state, if you could. Yeah, I always love getting the crystal ball out. It's fun.

Look, I would say that whenever we talk about the future, it does make me, all jokes aside, a little bit nervous, but what I do like is data. And when we look at data and we look at objective facts, I think it tells a really compelling story we've been seeing consistent growth across virtually all parts of the state I think we've got some really strong fundamentals that underpin that and I think we can rely on those on those to continue to support the property market we've got very low unemployment in Queensland we're still continuing to see very strong

interstate growth interstate migration rather we're seeing a good international migration levels as well we know we have a growing population so I think I think that that speaks volumes we've also got a market where our commercial property market is still very strong in particular in the office sector that's challenged in in Melbourne in particular but even in sydney whereas our commercial office market is still doing really well and i think that that's always relevant we forget to talk about commercial property sometimes so that is relevant but i think really what's really exciting about about queensland is it's difficult to talk about it because often it's it's it's hard to put into words it's it's the vibe as as we like to say

so what i hear consistently is when people visit brisbane in particular and they haven't been in a while, they are absolutely gobsmacked at how much this city has changed. The modernisation of Brisbane is a really extraordinary thing. We've had some really exciting infrastructure projects and we've got some other great ones that are coming up. So there's plenty going on in Brisbane. We've got the Olympic Games that are only some eight years away. That will involve obviously, yes utilizing existing infrastructure but we'll have to build a lot more so that will undoubtedly bring in new people as well and I think there's something to be said for the lifestyle in Queensland I think we are seeing all around the globe this this phenomenon of people wanting to

move somewhere where they can have a better lifestyle and I think that is what makes our state so appealing and i don't want to just talk about brisbane because yes brisbane is the capital city and finally it's being recognized as a serious city uh and it's and it's becoming a it's no longer the poor cousin or the bridesmaid whatever term you want to use um but in addition to that the really lovely thing about queensland is that um we have such a decentralized population and of course it means that you can move here and if you don't want to live in the southeast corner and you want to live in regional Queensland you're going to be able to buy something at a far more affordable price point and you're going to have an amazing lifestyle and whether whether you love

the water whether you love uh you know if you're looking for a tree change we offer all of that and more and I think that livability factor is something that really puts us in a in a really wonderful position. So I feel really confident. Yes, we are facing some headwinds that we've talked about on this show today. But I think that's not something that's exclusive to Queensland. And we've got some growing pains that we are contending with, without a doubt. But I think from an investor perspective, there are some wonderful opportunities. You can get a really great return on investment and and there's very high demand for rental properties and of course if you're thinking about buying from an owner owner occupier perspective again your biggest

challenge is going to be uh competing with uh with many others but but there's a reason that so many people are looking to buy so um i i feel i feel very optimistic about what the future holds for the sunshine state yeah i love that and and i you're right you can't put a price on or underestimate mate, the livability factor, because one thing that COVID has done is turned up the volume on the exodus to lifestyle. And with the technology that we are now able to access to, we're able to live and work from anywhere without having to sit in a city office somewhere. So I think Queensland fits beautifully into that neck of the woods. I'd love to get your thoughts on any downside drag factors that you might envisage moving forward. Any thoughts on that score?

Yeah, absolutely. So I think the challenges that we're going to have is that we know lots of people want to move up here, but we need to house them. We desperately need tradies. We've seen the government introduce a series of initiatives to try and attract tradies, either within the state or from interstate. The challenge becomes where on earth are we going to house them?

And that becomes a more critical issue the closer we get to the Olympic Games. So that's an issue. And, of course, and on top of that, not just tradies but just the length of time, construction timeframes. We've got some highly unionised construction projects happening up here. So a lot of the tradies are occupied with those.

And, of course, those sorts of projects are commanding big, big prices. And so it's really challenging to drag people away from those sorts of projects and to build residential So I think really that the biggest challenge I see is that supply issue. How are we going to keep up with the growing demand? We are starting to see some green shoots. We're starting to see some out-of-the-box thinking.

There's a conversation happening around prefab manufactured homes. We're talking a lot about infill and doing more to try and incentivise infill. um we're also trying to move the community on on embracing um high rises so that we can build uh we we can build multiple dwellings at the one time um so so they're they're the sorts of things that we need to be focused on um because if we can solve that critical piece then then the sky's the limit for Queensland. 100% agree yeah what's your view as a sideline really on the impact of climate change and the sort of rising incidence of extreme weather events any thoughts on that absolutely such a such an important issue here in Queensland we are the natural disaster capital

of Australia sadly it's not a title I like to brag about we know that floods are fairly commonplace as well as various other natural disaster events I think it's the critical issue that it presents is insurance it's becoming more and more difficult the cost of insurance premiums in queensland particularly up up north in north queensland this is well documented and well publicized that's challenging we know of people who simply can't get flood cover and if you can't get flood cover um potentially you can't get a mortgage and and you live in fear every time it rains uh so so those are really important issues so it's not just about um i think once upon a time And we used to talk about climate change.

Climate change is obviously important and people are concerned about our planet and future generations. But even if we think about the impact that climate change has on the hip pocket, it's extraordinarily important. And so we have seen, obviously, the federal government introducing legislation to contend with that. We'd like to see the state government doing more. we we're we're big at we're big fans of uh the scheme that exists in new zealand where a little

bit of everyone's um premium contributions gets put into a pool we think that makes good sense so we've been advocating for that but without a doubt uh that is that is a a big issue uh up here in queensland where natural disasters sadly are part of our landscape but mind you i've got just the context, insurers are taking a similar approach in most of the other states. So it's not just a Queensland issue. There's been floods and extreme weather events in a lot of parts of the country and that is influencing insurers' look at it and the cost of just normal policies to make up for the holes that those events are

actually creating. So now that's great. So I guess putting a bow around all this and bringing it all together, Antonia, What's your thoughts on the future position for property in the Sunshine State? It's a good one to finish on because, of course, we're heading into an election here in Queensland in October and we have seen both the government and the opposition putting property front and centre.

So we've just recently seen the government finally, after advocating for it for a long time, we've seen the government increasing the threshold for first-time buyers, so the stamp duty concession, lifting from $500,000 to $700,000. And they've also just recently committed to, if they are elected, to conducting a full-blown property tax review with the objective being to increase supply.

So that's welcome news. And the opposition, similarly, in response to the government's budget announcements, they've come out with a series of policies that they have said that they will implement if elected, again, very much centred on helping first-time buyers and giving them a helping hand and, again, some other policies that are centred on trying to increase supply. So it does look like both sides of our political teams

are acutely aware of how important the housing issue is. So irrespective of the outcome in October, we'd like to see housing remaining front and centre with whoever does form government. Beautifully said. I just want to thank you for all of these really well-considered and well-informed insights on the future and quite a bright future for Queensland and Antonio.

And it's really clear that there's still, despite some of the scary headlines that the mainstream media likes to keep us on our toes with, there's a mountain of opportunity occurring up there in the immediate and long-term future. So, look, I want to sort of thank you for taking so much time to keep us up to speed. We're looking forward to getting you back on regularly

to continue to do that. And I really want to thank you for being so generous with your time on the show today. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Here's how Realty's discovery search works. Now, think of AI as an assistant on your real estate journey. How AI works is by using algorithms and data, the words that you use to describe the type of property you want.

By entering what you want, the AI learns and makes predictions or decisions and then shows you the results. So rather than searching by suburb and then property type and land size and so on, simply type in or say what you want. The more you use Realty's AI discovery search, the more accurate it becomes. And that's it for this week. Join us for more property news each week with Realty Talk and Get Invested. And you can do that by subscribing to The Property Hub on all podcast players. Join the conversation too on Facebook at The Property Hub Collective. Until next week, all the best.