Redlands home prices have surged from about $550,000 to $1.2 million in just six years, as young locals question whether buying in their hometown is still within reach.
REDLANDS young people are increasingly asking “what’s the point?” when it comes to owning a home in the city they grew up in, a housing forum has heard.
Politicians, builders and developers gathered at Elysium Restaurant and Bar, Victoria Point, on Tuesday for Champion Redlands Coast’s housing forum, examining how the city can deliver more homes, greater choice and better transport without losing its lifestyle.
Member for Redlands Rebecca Young said the challenge was playing out in her own family.
“My eldest son has just become a fully qualified electrician, so he is earning good money,” she said.
“I say to him regularly, ‘You should buy a house.’ He says, ‘What’s the point?’
“That is reflective of a lot of what we are seeing: ‘What’s the point?’”
Mrs Young said a home comparable to the one she and her husband bought in the Redlands for about $460,000 was now worth more than $1 million.
Fiteni Homes general manager of construction Adam Pasfield said the rise in house-and-land prices had been dramatic.
“Back in 2019, a four-bedroom family home in the Redlands could be a $500,000 to $550,000 house-and-land package,” he said.
“Today, that same package is about $1.2 million.”
Mr Pasfield said his company was looking at terrace housing as one way to deliver attainable homes for first-home buyers, while also appealing to downsizers.
A recently launched project had attracted more than half its buyers from the first-home buyer market, he said.
“It is a three- or four-bedroom product, with a single or double garage, on blocks of about 150 square metres, and the market has responded,” Mr Pasfield said.
Housing Minister Sam O’Connor said increasing supply was the key to creating options for young Queenslanders.
“It comes back to supply,” he said.
“Whether it is a young person being able to rent somewhere while they look to buy, rent longer term if that is what they choose, or take part in home ownership for the first time, it happens only if you have supply.”
Mr O’Connor said Queensland had the nation’s lowest home ownership rate, with the government aiming to reverse that trend within 10 years.
But more homes alone would not solve the Redlands’ future pressures, panellists warned.
Urbex general manager Carl Bruhn said Southern Thornlands needed to become more than a new housing estate.
“It needs to be a genuine, planned community: green space, shops, employment opportunities and the infrastructure that allows people to live well,” he said.
“Employment is fundamental. It is probably as fundamental as housing itself.”
Hutchinson Builders project director Jamie Cox said future development had to be appropriate for the Redlands and backed by infrastructure.
“Redlands does not need 30-storey towers in the middle of suburbia,” he said.
“What it can support are appropriate developments.
“Seven-storey buildings in the right places and terraces as well.”
Mrs Young said Brisbane 2032 and the planned Birkdale Olympic venue could help make the case for a Metro extension to Capalaba, while calling for water transport to play a bigger role in the southern Redlands.
“If we can travel from Weinam Creek to Cleveland in 30 minutes, that is a lot faster than driving from the bottom of Redland Bay to Cleveland at busy times,” she said.
“Why are we not embracing the coastline a little more?”
Mr Pasfield said the industry also needed to do a better job of explaining the benefits of well-planned development to the community.
“My challenge to industry is that we have to be bold,” he said.
“We cannot hide behind approvals.
“We need to go out and tell the story — the good stories about infrastructure, the projects and what they will deliver.”
