Brisbane – what next? Yet another positive piece of news about Brisbane

Queensland’s population has tipped the five million mark – four years ahead of schedule.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament this morning that the state had passed the “magic milestone” overnight. “Great news for Queensland, we are now five million strong,” she said.

The state reached four million people 13 years ago and wasn’t predicted to reach five million until 2022. New estimates suggest the state will hit six million people by 2030.

Queensland is growing at about 1.7 per cent, higher than the national average (1.4), with international migration and natural increases the chief contributors.

Another 169 babies are born each day.

But high housing prices in Sydney and Melbourne are starting to make their mark on the state, according to University of Queensland demographer Elin Charles-Edwards.

Four busloads of people relocate to Queensland from interstate every 24 hours.

“For a couple of years, we had a low level of interstate migration, but we’ve seen this upswing in the past year or so,” she said.

“There’s a bit of speculation the house price differential is starting to bite, so it is attracting people up here because it’s just that much cheaper.”

Dr Charles-Edwards said the state was coping with growth but warned against being in a position where it was playing “catch up”.

She said more public transport in the south-east epicentre of growth was needed.

“I think the notion of having a metro system in inner city Brisbane’s critical,” she said.

“In the southeast corner, further rail connections out to the south and western corridor are really critical.

“I actually think Queensland’s doing pretty well. We haven’t had quite the pressures we’ve seen in the southern capitals.

“But it is certainly something that needs continued and ongoing attention, particularly with transport as the urban expanse gets bigger.”

Last week’s federal budget included $300 million for the Brisbane Metro project.

Real estate agents predict a single house on a large block will disappear completely around Brisbane and in the future a garage will no longer be a standard feature.

Source: https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/05/16/12/25/queensland-population-reaches-five-million