When former Melbourne resident Stuart White first saw Woolloongabba in 2017, he compared it to Richmond and Collingwood before they had reached their full potential.
Now with home values spiking across Queensland, he is glad to have purchased a home in the inner-city suburb before the market blew up.
“Buying in 2017 at the right time enabled us to be able to save for the next five years to be able to build an extensive renovation,” he said. “What we’ve done, we know that we could never do in Melbourne.”
Stuart White sitting down with his partner Jane Zeller, with his children Harriette and Stevie behind them. Mr White said he was glad to have bought in the suburb before the housing market began to skyrocket. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail
While the property market has grown nationally by around 7 per cent over the last year, Queensland’s annual growth has seen house prices rise by 13.56 per cent.
New PropTrack data has shown 761 house or unit markets across Brisbane saw annual growth of at least 10 per cent, and 226 of them saw increases of at least 20 per cent.
Woolloongabba saw a growth rate of 4.6 per cent for houses, which currently have a median price of $1,335,000: hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the state median.
With Woolloongabba affected by the upcoming Olympic Games, prices have grown over the past year by 4.6 per cent, while state’s growth rate reached a whopping 13.56 per cent.
Mr White’s family moved into their new home in 2024, having used it as an investment property until their renovation.
With a large percentage of residents in the suburb renting, Mr White said this created a socially and politically diverse pool of people living side-by-side in the area.
Belle Property West End agent Sam Peterffy said houses in the suburb used to be bought by people like teachers and government workers.
“Now they are lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, IT professionals and dentists,” she said. “Totally different from seven years ago.”
Mr White said he’d still buy in Woolloongabba despite prices today, thanks to its accessibility and diverse community. Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail
While house prices across the country spiked after the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms Peterffy said she saw a smaller boom in the suburb after the announcement of the Cross River Rail, which would be including a stop in Woolloongabba.
Ms Peterffy said with only dozens of houses for sale in Woolloongabba every year, she sold a good percentage of them. Around a third of her sellers ended up buying back in the suburb, due to its accessibility to the city and good schooling.
“These people have money, but what they don’t have is time,” she said, and added that buying apartments in the suburb was also becoming a more aggressive competition.
“It is my prediction that property prices in Woolloongabba will double in the next 10 years,” she said.
Belle Property West agent Sam Peterffy said she predicted Woolloongabba prices could double “in the next 10 years”, despite the future of the Gabba stadium. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass
Mr White said he expected the suburb to grow more popular, and even today would buy in the suburb “within a heartbeat”.
But Mr White added he was disappointed about the news that the Gabba stadium would not be used for the 2032 Olympic Games, and was confused about the suburb’s future after the stadium gets removed.
“I think the south side of Brisbane needs something,” he said. “There are so many restaurants now, and people who have invested in Woolloongabba … they get a bit of a kick out from the cricket, and the footy, right? But what do they do now?”
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