Published April 2025
If you live around Newstead you could be mistaken for thinking you were inside a building site.
From the northern edge of Newstead edging into Albion, to the southern edge nudging into Teneriffe there are at least 10 new proposals for large projects, almost all of them residential.
And if that wasn’t enough, there is the Riverside Sands site that offers five high rises as well as a rezoning application for the southern side of Montpelier Rd that asks for 30-storey height limits that would allow 1500 units.
I added up the numbers and it comes to about 9,000 – 10,000 new residents in Newstead / Albion / Teneriffe precincts plus 178 hotel rooms. The heights are between 12 storeys (Maud St) and 27 storeys (Mirvac stage 3).
Who are these apartments for?
The target market is wealthier under-40 singles, young couples, downsizing retirees, and investors. These are not homes for the people struggling to find a place in Brisbane’s tightening housing market.
That is not going fix the housing crisis, so who is missing out?
It is mostly the young, especially students single parent families, and those single women over 55 who face rising rents and limited housing security.
Older people, who are divorced or widowed and who have limited superannuation are also at risk.
They are all affected by the present high rents and limited amount of shared housing, especially close to the city. Rents in Brisbane are up over 40 per cent in some suburbs since 2020 and the vacancy rate is below the benchmark of 3 per cent.
Rising costs of construction are pricing home ownership – even apartment ownership – out of reach of many.
In addition, there is a shortage of public housing but many essential workers (the missing middle) cannot qualify for that because their salaries are too high. It is good to see Mirvac’s build-to rent project now becoming available, but it is the exception.
Newstead has grown from 30,000 people in 2021 to a projected 40,000 when the Olympics begin.
The median price for units in Newstead in 2024 was $727,500 with listings of one-bedroom units starting from $495,000; two bedroom units ranging from $750,000 to over $1,150,000; three bedroom units (less common and positioned at the higher end of the market) sell for prices ranging from approximately $995,000 to over $1,950,000.
In Albion – once affordable but now climbing – the prices are lower but also increasing. In 2024 the median price for units was $615,000, an 11 per cent increase from the previous year. One-bedroom apartments start from approximately $450,000; two bedroom apartments prices range between $525,000 and $979,000 and three bedroom apartments (also relatively uncommon) sell for around $995,000.
Teneriffe, with a similar industrial past to Newstead, has already witnessed large increases in value. Teneriffe’s median house price last year was $4.105 million. The highest in Brisbane.
The median unit price last year in the precinct was $900,000, a 9 per cent increase from 2024, and this year, one-bedroom apartments sell from $1,000,000; two-bedroom apartments for between $1,000,000 to $1,200,000; and three-bedroom apartments for around $1,900,000.
In Teneriffe, purchasing a unit is the only accessible option for many buyers.
What these numbers show is that the current surge in development in these three precincts is not solving Brisbane’s housing crisis.
If these projects proceed, they will complete the transformation of these once-industrial inner-north precincts into high-density, high-value residential zones.
These apartments aren’t designed with diverse communities in mind. They’re designed for those who can afford to pay. They’re financial instruments first, homes second.
Without close proximities to schools and playgrounds, the apartments do not really suit families with young or growing children. And as people like being with other similarly positioned people, they will not cater for those who need housing the most.
The city will be left to pick up the pieces. The roads will continue to be a nightmare in the mornings and evenings. With limitations on building carparking, good luck in finding a space when you visit. The skyline is changing but many of us will be left in its shadows.
