Are you thinking of moving to Brisbane? Well
there's a few things that have changed quite recently that may make what you think
you know about Brisbane actually not so true anymore. So there's some
things you really need to know, so i'm going to talk in this video about
both the pros and the cons and give you some really up-to-date information that's going
to help you make a much more informed decision. So I moved to Brisbane in 2014 and i know
what it's like to have to adjust to this city, so there's some things that maybe are not so
ideal that i'm going to tell you about later in the video, but let's start with the pros. Probably
the most obvious thing that's great about Brisbane is the climate. I mean I'm here on a winter's day
and I'm in a t-shirt. I mean how amazing is that? The maximum temperature in summer is around
30 and it gets down to around 22 as a maximum in winter. The nights can get a little bit chilly.
In winter it gets down to around 10 on average in the coldest nights, but you know, it's definitely
not unbearable. What you may not know is that based on a 2020 report by the Australia Institute,
Brisbane actually now has 31 days less winter than we did 50 years ago and 11 days more summer.
So if you're into the warm weather that's really good news. Some people aren't fans of the
humidity, in summer it can hover around 57% humidity, but again it's not unbearable. And
because of that great climate, people like to do a lot of things outdoors. In Brisbane and
we've got a great natural environment, and i would actually say that the natural environment
is the second pro of living in Brisbane. I mean it's a very green area. In the city of Brisbane
there's actually 2160 parks, and some of those parks are really beautiful during jacaranda
season. And then in the area surrounding Brisbane we've got a lot of really amazing national parks,
waterfalls, rainforests, all kinds of places that are just amazing to get out hiking, trekking, rock
climbing, all kinds of things like that. So if you're an active kind of person then Brisbane's
definitely a good place to live on that front, and because of that natural environment we've also
got a lot of wildlife, a lot of native animals, and so even in the botanic gardens over here right
in the city, beside the usual ibises which are an unofficial mascot of Brisbane, you can also see
curlews, water dragons, you may even see a python. So you know you when you're living even
in the city you feel like you're still in a really natural kind of environment.
That's definitely one of Brisbane's assets. There's no denying that Brisbane's a really
pretty city, visually it's quite attractive, which is great for me as a photographer, but
it's more than just a pretty face. I mean it's a multicultural city. Any kind of food you want to
get there's a restaurant for it. And we also have a range of cultural events. There's Curiocity,
there's Enchanted Gardens, we've got the Brisbane Comedy Festival, there's Riverfire, which is part
of Brisbane Festival where we have this massive fireworks display. All kinds of things going
on all the time. And we've also got Australia's biggest gallery of modern art. We've got the
museums, we've got art galleries. Culturally there's a lot going on. Even street art. We have
quite an iconic street artist known as the Blu Art Xinja, so there's a bunch of things going on
on that front. And be sure to subscribe to this channel because i cover a lot of those cultural
events as well as a lot of other things to see and do in and around Brisbane. But anyway, let's move
on to the next point. Another aspect of Brisbane that makes it quite a livable city is the public
transport. The public transport system is actually really good, and you can get most places without
needing a car depending on where you're living, so when you're looking for a location definitely
check out the public transport options in that area. But the public transport is only going to
get better with Brisbane set to host the 2032 Olympics, so you know they're going to be pouring
more money into that aspect of the infrastructure as well. So that's some of the things that make
Brisbane a really livable city, but there are some things that are changing for the worse,
and they're the things I'm going to talk about right now. So now might be a good time for you to
give the video a thumbs up before i give you the bad news, because there are quite a few cons to
living in Brisbane. The first one actually looks like a pro when you look on the surface of things,
but when you understand the current situation and how things have changed recently you will
actually see that it's not such a great thing, and that's related to property prices whether
you're buying or renting. Now if you're comparing with the big cities in Australia, yes, Sydney
and Melbourne are more expensive still. Sydney, the median house price in June 2021 was over 1.41
million dollars and in Melbourne it was also over a million, whereas Brisbane in June 2021 the
median house price was just around 678 thousand dollars, so much much lower than the other two
big Australian cities. The other smaller cities were all around the same ballpark as Brisbane,
apart from Canberra which also went over the one million dollar mark in june this year. So
you may say "yeah hey the prices are not too bad". While the prices may be lower in Brisbane
compared to Sydney and Melbourne, the problem is that a lot of people have been moving from there
into Brisbane. Brisbane's become the place to be, and other parts of Queensland as well, and
what that's done is it's made it a very very competitive market. So you may have the money to
buy the place that you want and it will be cheaper than in Sydney and Melbourne, you know, maybe half
the price, but the problem is that there's a whole lot of other people trying to buy places as well.
So you may not be able to get the places you want and you may not be able to be quite as selective
as you could in the other cities because it's just become such a hot market. And the other downside
of that is that it has started to drive the prices up. Now the good news is that Brisbane house
prices haven't increased as much as in the other cities. Overall they've only increased by around
13 percent in the last year, which is actually much better than a lot of the other cities, but
the bad news comes to if you're looking to rent. Because while buying has become quite competitive,
renting even more! So over the last 12 months rentals have increased in pretty much every
Australian city, but the good news is that Brisbane rentals are still reasonably low if
we look at the whole national situation, with four australian cities costing more, sometimes
much more, than brisbane to rent a place. But what is the bad news is that just in the last few
months rental prices have jumped as the market has become extremely competitive. The surprising thing
is that actually due to this increase in prices the average rental price in Brisbane is actually
now $20 higher than the average rental price in Melbourne. For me that's really amazing, because
people always talk about how affordable Brisbane is, but now if you're renting it's actually
less affordable than Melbourne, which is, you know, not particularly cheap! So hey
that's just something to keep in mind. To make matters worse, potential tenants have
actually started offering $10, $20, as much as $50 above what's being asked for the rental price per
week just to secure the property. And it's become really really hard to secure a rental.
So if you're thinking of moving up here, this is something you need to be aware of.
Because it may be actually quite hard for you to find a place to live. There's another
thing that you might want to be aware of, um, i might just head up to Mount Coot-tha and I'll
tell you that, just for a different background... OK, so i made it, and how good is that view?
So let's talk about the second con that I've got to mention, and that is also relating to
money and things that you're going to pay, and that is your ability to actually earn money
in Brisbane may not be as good as in some of the other cities. Based on a report by Budget Direct
in June 2020, the average monthly income in Sydney was five thousand four hundred and thirty
three dollars. At the same time in Brisbane, the average monthly income was four thousand seven
hundred and one dollars. That's considerably less, so you may be paying less for accommodation - if
you can get it - but you also may not be able to secure as high a paying job as you could in
Sydney. Now those incomes could be affected by the kinds of jobs available, but there is
definitely more potential to earn a higher income in some of the other Australian cities as opposed
to Brisbane. And while we're speaking about that, let's talk about employment, because
it's a smaller pool in Brisbane so it may actually take you longer to find a job.
It can be harder to get a job in Brisbane as opposed to say Sydney or Melbourne where
you've got a much bigger pool of opportunities. So that's another thing that you need to be aware of
before you actually come on up here to Brisbane. Another bad thing about living in Brisbane
is the fuel prices. We actually have the most expensive fuel prices of any capital city
in Australia, and what it tends to do is start at a really high point and then slowly drop
down over a period of time. But that period of time is so unpredictable that you never
know when you're going to get the good prices, and so it'll slowly drop down, it could be
over two weeks, it could be over two months. You never know. It's very unpredictable. And
then suddenly it'll jump back up 30 or 40 cents and then slowly trickle down again. So it's
really unpredictable and when it's at the high point it's absolutely exorbitant prices. So
that's another downside to living in Brisbane. All right, so i'm back home now. Let me give
you the last con about living in Brisbane, then I'm going to give you a couple of things that
may be pros or cons depending on what you're into. But uh yeah, the last con is the trading hours.
Things in Brisbane tend to not be open for really long hours depending on what you're used
to. Take the stores on Queen Street Mall for example. They generally open at 9am, and
close at 5pm Monday to Saturday, except for Friday when they're open until 9pm. But on Sunday
they don't open until 10 and they close at 4. Most cafes will close at three or four
o'clock in the afternoon. You can find some that are open longer, and there are a couple
of 24-hour cafes, but generally yeah, if you, if it's four o'clock and you want a coffee you're
probably out of luck. You may have to drive quite a while to find a place that's actually open. Also
supermarkets on Sunday close at 6 p.m. That's just something that can be a little bit inconvenient,
because you know, you might run out of milk at six o'clock on a Sunday night and you can't
actually go to the supermarket to get some more. You know, the service stations and convenience
stores will still be open, but you know, then you've got to pay the more expensive prices. It's
more just a little annoyance than anything that's majorly inconvenient, but something to be aware
of before you move to Brisbane is those limited trading hours. So i mentioned that there would be
a couple of things that could be pros or could be cons depending on you and the way that you look at
things to living in Brisbane. The first thing is that in Brisbane we don't have daylight savings
hours, so if you're coming from say New South Wales or Victoria, or maybe another country where
you have daylight savings, we don't have that. To be honest, I don't like daylight savings, so I'm
happy that Brisbane doesn't have daylight savings, where basically they shift the time to adjust for,
you know, shorter days in winter or longer days in summer or something. I don't even really know
much about it because i try not to think about it because i just don't like it. That's why I'm happy
in Brisbane. But if you're into daylight savings, yeah, well we don't have that, so that might
make you sad. If that makes you sad, why? Anyway... And then finally the last thing is
probably one of the biggest things about Brisbane, and that is the really different atmosphere. Now
this is something that you're either going to love or hate, or maybe like me over time you'll
get used to it, and that is that it's really really chill. It's a really laid back place and
so that's why a lot of people say that Brisbane is more like a country town, and that's because it's
just so laid back. Now putting a positive spin on it you could say it's not pretentious. You know,
people are genuine and you know, they'll take the time to say hello. You know, you're walking down
the street and you come across a stranger, you'll say "hi". People say "thank you" when they're
getting off the bus to the bus driver. You know, little things like that. It's a lot more friendly.
It's got more of a friendly feel which is great, but also the pace is a little bit slower
than say Sydney or Melbourne or you know, larger international cities. So that may be
something you like, it may be something you don't, but it's something you need to be aware of
that, you know, things move a little more slowly and... but you know, on the plus side people
are a little more friendly, I would say. So yeah, if you're into that chill
vibe, Brisbane's a place for you, if you like the hustle and bustle and
fast pace of, you know, busy city living, maybe not the best place for you. So yeah,
something just to, you know, consider among all the other things when you're thinking about
moving here. If you've got any questions, hey, feel free to leave them in the comments below. And
you know, give the video a thumbs up if you learnt anything or if it helped you in making the
decision of whether to move to Brisbane or not. And yeah, apart from that, subscribe to the
channel and i will see you in the next video.
