Apartments.com.au
A new report from property services firm Colliers suggests this current period is critical, as Brisbane’s expanding
Olympic infrastructure program begins competing directly with apartment developments for skilled workers, building materials and construction capacity.
The report, Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Creating Solutions, warns that while South East Queensland desperately needs more housing, the scale of Olympic-related construction is expected to place unprecedented pressure on an industry already grappling with labour shortages.
One of the largest projects will be the Brisbane 2032 Athletes Village, which will provide more than 10,500 beds during the Games before being converted into approximately 1750 to 2000 apartments. The development alone is expected to consume a significant share of the region’s construction workforce and materials.
The warning comes as Construction Skills Queensland forecasts the State’s annual construction pipeline will average $69 billion over the coming years before peaking at $75 billion in 2027-28.
Demand for construction workers is projected to rise by 17 per cent to almost 150,000 people, with an estimated annual shortfall of 19,000 workers that could expand to as many as 35,000 during the peak Olympic construction period.
Colliers Queensland Residential Director Andrew Scriven said developers who secured projects before 2027 would be best placed to avoid escalating construction costs.
“From 2027 onwards, the market will shift dramatically,” Mr Scriven said.
“Labour will increasingly be locked into government-led infrastructure and Olympic projects, which means private residential developments will face higher costs and tighter margins.
“The developers who move now are the ones most likely to get projects off the ground.”
He said the same pressures would also affect buyers, with fewer apartment developments expected to be launched once construction capacity tightened.
“If you’re looking to change your lifestyle over the next five years, now is your window of opportunity to buy,” he said.
Developers are already moving to secure their place in the market before the expected construction bottleneck.
Following the success of its Monarch development at Toowong, Consolidated Properties is preparing to launch two major Brisbane apartment projects during the second half of 2026.
These include the 25-storey Gloriette development at Yeerongpilly Green, located within one of Brisbane’s key Olympic precincts, and Castile, a 25-storey riverfront apartment tower at Newstead.
Both developments will be constructed by Hutchinson Builders, with early works already underway at Yeerongpilly and construction expected to commence at Newstead later this year.
