_Focus on | Brisbane - The new world city
To sustain an emerging global city, there must be viable opportunities to attract globally scalable industry sectors and create a highly desirable place to do business. Brisbane is rapidly emerging as a leader in this space while enabling affordable urban precincts to live, work and collaborate for higher education, research, start-ups and technological innovation. This guide focuses on living, studying and buying residential property in Brisbane.
Liveability
Brisbane ranked in 22nd place of the World’s Most Liveable Cities in 2018 according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, as shown in Table 1. The index is based on 30 factors spread across five areas: stability, infrastructure, education, health care and environment.
Mercer placed Brisbane in equal 37th position, from 233 cities, in their Quality of Life index as shown in Table 2. This index is ranked on internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries.
City Wealth Index
The Knight Frank City Wealth Index 2018 ranked Brisbane 49th of the cities that matter to the ultra-wealthy. Across the four categories, Brisbane performed best in the ‘investment’ category (54th) based on the annual average private investment into property over 2016 and 2017. The ‘future’ category also scored well (57th), considering future economic performance (GDP) measured in constant prices.
International Visitors
Brisbane is the gateway to Queensland’s famous attractions with many local and international events held throughout the year.
A drive from Brisbane to the Gold Coast is approximately one (1) hour by road. Many of Australia’s largest theme parks are located on the Gold Coast. The destination is popular with families, catering to all age groups and particularly in school holiday times.
Queensland is also home to one of the most renowned natural wonders of the world—the Great Barrier Reef. A flight from Brisbane to the serene Hamilton and Hayman Islands arrives within two (2) hours of take-off, a perfect weekend away for locals and tourists alike.
Brisbane accommodates a vast array of renowned restaurants, art galleries, independent fashion houses and vibrant retail strips. Queen Street Mall, in the heart of Brisbane CBD, offers a pedestrian-only shopping district, lined with unrivalled local, national and international labels and flagship stores. Luxury brands are found along Queens Plaza within the mall, Edward Street and Wintergarden, with its striking and colourful metallic webbed entrance.
Fortitude Valley, on the edge of the CBD, provides a range of shops supporting local designers with luxury designers home along James Street. Heritage buildings contrast modern, edgy buildings—much like the shopping experience.
The number of international visitors to Queensland grew 5.5%, to total 2.7 million, in the year ending March 2018. The most number of international tourists came from China (517,000), New Zealand (465,000), United States (238,000), United Kingdom (230,000) and Japan (203,000) as shown in Figure 1.
Compared to a year earlier, in Queensland, international visitors from India grew by 41.4% in the year ending March 2018, while Thailand and Hong Kong increased by 25.1% and 20.9% respectively.