Over the past few weeks, I have spoken with a number of owners in Newstead and Teneriffe — intelligent, financially sophisticated investors — who are reconsidering their positions in light of the May 2026 Federal Budget. The concern is understandable. The noise has been significant.

But when you separate the noise from the data, the picture looks very different. This is my honest, unfiltered view — backed by the most current research from CBRE, ANZ, Domain, Knight Frank, Ray White and Cotality.

The Triple Whammy — and Why It Hasn’t Changed the Fundamentals

I want to acknowledge something directly before making the case for holding: the current market unease is real, and it is legitimate. Property owners right now are contending with a genuine triple whammy — three significant headwinds hitting simultaneously.

Interest rates have risen sharply and remained elevated longer than most forecasters predicted. For negatively geared investors, the holding cost pressure is real — particularly on assets purchased before the rate cycle began.

The Federal Budget landed in May with changes to negative gearing and CGT that, while not affecting existing owners, generated uncertainty and noise across the market — enough to cause many otherwise confident investors to pause.

Geopolitical instability — the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, tensions in the Middle East, and the broader impact on global energy and commodity markets — has created a backdrop of macro-economic anxiety that filters into investor sentiment everywhere, including here.

All three are real. None of them change the structural case for holding a quality inner-Brisbane apartment. Here is why.

First — What the Budget Actually Did (and Didn’t Do) to You

If you owned your property before 7:30pm on 12 May 2026, nothing has changed. You remain fully entitled to negative gear your investment and retain the 50% CGT discount. The legislation is explicit — existing owners are grandfathered entirely.

The changes only affect new purchases of established properties made after that date, and even then only from 1 July 2027. For owners of well-located, established inner-Brisbane apartments, the budget has arguably strengthened your position. It redirects future investor demand away from competing established stock. It makes your asset harder to replace. And because new builds remain fully exempt from the changes, the only way a rational investor can replicate your position is to buy new — which, as I’ll explain below, is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to deliver.

The Supply Gap Is Not a Talking Point. It Is Arithmetic.

CBRE’s most recent apartment outlook forecasts that Brisbane needs approximately 16,000 new dwellings per year to meet population demand. It is currently delivering 4,600 apartments annually. That is a structural shortfall of nearly 12,000 homes every year — and CBRE forecasts this gap will push vacancy rates from their current 1.1% down to 0.7% by 2030.

JLL and The Urban Developer have separately confirmed that construction cost inflation and labour shortages — particularly in Queensland ahead of the 2032 Games — are continuing to constrain new supply. BDO’s March 2026 housing report describes new project feasibility as “challenging,” with elevated costs, tight contracting capacity and prolonged approval timeframes meaning projects take far longer to reach the market than the headline approvals numbers suggest.

Colliers has framed it most directly: Brisbane is facing a narrowing development window, worsening housing shortages and rising construction constraints that are creating a “fundamentally different investment environment.” The owners who benefit most from that environment are the ones already inside it.

The Numbers Are Not Speculative

Cotality’s June 2026 data shows Brisbane dwelling values rose 19.7% over the past 12 months — the median now sitting at approximately $1,116,180. ANZ Research forecasts 9.7% growth for Brisbane in 2026 alone — one of the strongest projections of any capital city. Brisbane has now delivered three consecutive years of double-digit growth: 12.1%, 13.3%, 9.7%.

Domain’s chief economist Dr Nicola Powell has confirmed that Brisbane’s median unit price grew 23% in the past year and is on track to overtake Sydney as Australia’s most expensive capital city unit market in the second half of 2026. “If you had said five years ago that Brisbane units would be on track to surpass Sydney, no one would have believed you,” Powell observed.

Knight Frank’s 2026 Wealth Report names Queensland as Australia’s luxury market powerhouse, with decade-long price growth surpassing every other capital city. The price ceiling for super-prime Brisbane apartments surged from $9.2 million to $14 million in just 12 months — now exceeding $48,000 per square metre. The global ultra-high-net-worth population is forecast to grow 46% by 2031. Increasingly, Brisbane is where that wealth is flowing.

Ray White’s 2026 Luxury Outlook Report reaches the same conclusion: Queensland has displaced Sydney and Melbourne as the dominant force in Australian prestige property growth.

The Olympics Cycle Has Barely Started

CBRE analysed residential price performance across every Olympic host city since 1996. The finding is consistent and unambiguous: average residential price growth in the four years after the Games was 42.5% — compared to 23.3% in the four years leading up to the event. The Games are not the peak. They are the beginning of the next phase.

Brisbane’s position today mirrors Sydney’s before the 2000 Games: record interstate migration, genuine housing shortage, $120 billion in committed infrastructure spending, and underlying economic fundamentals that no other Australian city currently matches. API Magazine reported this month that investors are already “racing the clock before the Olympic construction crunch intensifies” — with supply shortages, population growth and construction constraints outweighing the impact of higher interest rates.

The Olympic Stadium is within walking distance of Newstead. The infrastructure is already committed. The trades and labour that would otherwise build competing supply are being absorbed by the Olympic pipeline. That pipeline does not release them until after 2032.

Your Apartment Cannot Be Rebuilt at What It’s Worth Today — and the Gap Is Getting Wider

Construction costs in Brisbane have risen more than 40% since 2020. But the more important story is what is happening now — and why that gap between replacement cost and current market value is accelerating, not stabilising.

The global conflicts of the past three years have had a direct and material impact on the cost of building anything in Australia. Steel, aluminium, copper, timber, glass, concrete — the raw materials that go into every apartment — are all affected by elevated fuel prices, disrupted supply chains, and the redirection of global manufacturing capacity toward military and reconstruction demand. The conflict in Ukraine alone disrupted a significant portion of global steel and aluminium supply; the Middle East tensions have kept energy costs elevated, which flows through to virtually every construction input.

On top of that, Queensland’s construction labour market is being fundamentally reshaped by the 2032 Olympic pipeline. A shortage of approximately 43,000 construction workers is forecast in Queensland ahead of the Games — workers who are being absorbed into Olympic infrastructure projects and who will not be available to build new residential supply. When labour is scarce and materials are expensive, the economics of new apartment development become increasingly marginal.

The result: the cost to build a comparable apartment today — in a tightly held inner-city precinct, with established body corporate, premium amenity, river proximity, and the quality of finishes that characterise Cavcorp buildings — would materially exceed what most of these apartments are currently trading at. That replacement cost gap is not a theoretical concept. It is the reason feasibility on new Brisbane apartment projects continues to be described as “challenging” by BDO, Colliers and JLL, even as the need for supply has never been more acute.

When replacement cost exceeds market value, the market corrects. The gap closes. It always does. And in Brisbane’s case, with geopolitical pressures on materials costs, Olympic demand on labour, and a structural supply shortfall of nearly 12,000 apartments per year, the forces pushing that gap wider are not temporary. They are structural.

Brisbane apartment rents are forecast to grow 6.5% in 2026 — ahead of Sydney at 4.5% and Melbourne at 4%, according to JLL. CBRE forecasts median apartment rents will grow 24–27% between 2025 and 2030. The income side of these investments is strengthening, not weakening.

My View

The owners who will look back on 2026 with regret are not those who held. They are those who sold in a moment of noise and missed the decade that followed.

The budget has not changed existing owners’ positions. The supply has not improved. The Olympics is six years away — and the historical data shows the growth cycle around the Games accelerates after the closing ceremony, not before. Replacement cost is rising. Yields are rising. The precinct — Newstead, Teneriffe, the Newstead Peninsula — is becoming more irreplaceable, not less.

If there is a specific number you need to achieve from a sale to justify moving on, I will have that conversation honestly with you. But the data, from the most credible institutional sources available, does not support selling now.

The window to be well-positioned when this city reaches its inflection point is closing. You’re already on the right side of it.

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Ari Shahbazifar is the director of sales at Cavalé, with 25 years of exclusive representation across Cavcorp’s portfolio in Newstead and Teneriffe. This article represents his personal analysis and is not financial advice. Sources: CBRE Apartment Outlook 2026, ANZ Research April 2026, Cotality June 2026, Domain (Dr Nicola Powell), Knight Frank Wealth Report 2026, Ray White Luxury Outlook 2026, The Urban Developer/JLL, API Magazine, Colliers, BDO Housing Report March 2026.

Brisbane’s most delicious month is officially here. Dine BNE City is back for June 2026 — the city’s biggest-ever dining program — and with 130 exclusive experiences across more than 80 venues, there has never been a better time to eat your way through the CBD and surrounds.

Running the entire month of June, Dine BNE City is spread across four distinct categories: Morning Edition (breakfast and brunch deals), Let’s Do Lunch (midday specials), Supper Club (after-dark dining), and Bar Safari (drinks and bites). Each category brings something different — from $15 bacon-and-egg burgers with coffee at Mr Edward’s Alehouse, to late-night seafood set menus at Tillerman, to three-course Nonna’s Favourites at Doughcraft for $78.

New for 2026 is the Morning Edition category, which makes the case for starting your day in the city. Riverbar & Kitchen is serving corn tostadas with watermelon mimosas, while Gather Bistro and the soon-to-open Goldie are offering $1 hash browns with your morning coffee. A compelling argument for the commute.

For evenings, the Bar Safari offers are particularly strong. Blackbird Brisbane’s ‘Adult Happy Meal’ — boujee chicken nuggets or a cheeseburger with fries and sparkling wine for $35 — has already generated serious buzz. Pompette Champagne Bar is doing moules frites with wine or sparkling for $40. The Brasserie Bar at Naldham House has tapas and mini cocktails for $24.

A series of one-off chef-led dinners and limited-seat events also runs throughout the month — these book out quickly, so it’s worth checking the full program early.

For those of you living in Newstead and Teneriffe, the CBD is ten minutes away and the precinct’s own dining scene — Evra, GIGI, Beccofino, The Standard Market — continues to hold its own against anything the city has to offer. But June is the month to cross the river.

Dine BNE City 2026

When: 1–30 June 2026
Where: Brisbane CBD and surrounds
Cost: Varies by venue and offer
→ View the full program at dine.brisbane.qld.au

The national auction clearance rate just hit 52.5% — the third consecutive fall following the RBA’s third consecutive rate hike to 4.35%. Brisbane printed 31.9%.

On paper, that looks alarming. In practice, for buyers and owners in the premium end of Newstead and Teneriffe, it tells a very different story — and arguably a reassuring one.

What the headline number actually means

Auction clearance rates measure the percentage of properties that sell under the hammer versus those passed in. When rates fall, the conventional read is that the market is cooling. But that framing misses something important: the number of properties being brought to auction is also falling. Brisbane recorded just 160 auctions last week, down from 212 the week prior. Fewer sellers are testing the market, which means the clearance rate is being dragged down by hesitancy at the supply end — not a collapse in demand.

For context, Brisbane’s auction market represents a small fraction of the city’s total transaction volume. The majority of prestige property in Newstead, Teneriffe and the inner precinct trades off-market or by expression of interest — not under the hammer. Auction clearance rates are largely irrelevant as a measure of what’s happening in the segment that matters to most Cavalé clients.

The rate rise argument that nobody is making

Here is the counterintuitive case: rising interest rates, at this stage of Brisbane’s cycle, are not uniformly bad for premium property owners.

When rates rise, buyer purchasing power falls — but that compression disproportionately affects first home buyers and mortgage-sensitive buyers in the $500k–$1.5M bracket. At $2M and above, buyer profiles shift. Many are equity-rich, asset-heavy, and less reliant on leverage to complete a purchase. Some are buying with no mortgage at all.

What rate rises do to the market at scale is reduce the pool of competing buyers for mainstream stock. That sounds negative. But for owners of premium, tightly held property in an undersupplied precinct, it concentrates serious attention on a smaller number of genuinely compelling assets — and removes the noise of speculative buyers who were never going to transact anyway.

Brisbane’s structural position hasn’t changed

The RBA can move rates. It cannot move the Olympic Games. It cannot move the $120 billion infrastructure pipeline. It cannot resolve a vacancy rate of 0.6% — already the tightest in the country — or manufacture new supply in a precinct where the development pipeline is effectively closed.

ANZ is still forecasting 9.7% price growth for Brisbane in 2026. Canstar analysis suggests Brisbane median prices could rise more than $100,000 this year alone. The structural supply-demand imbalance that has been driving Brisbane’s outperformance since 2020 is not a rate-sensitive phenomenon — it is a decade-long structural deficit meeting a decade of accelerating inward migration.

What this means in practice

If you are considering selling in the current environment, the noise around rate rises creates hesitancy in some vendors — which means less competing stock coming to market at exactly the moment when qualified buyers are still active. That is a sellers’ market condition dressed up as a buyers’ market headline.

If you are considering buying, the same dynamic applies in reverse. The buyers who step back from the market when sentiment turns are rarely the buyers who win over a five-year horizon. The buyers who have consistently outperformed in this precinct are those who moved when the narrative was loudest — not when it was quietest.

The headline says the market is cooling. The fundamentals say Brisbane is in the early stages of its most significant decade of growth. We know which one we are betting on.

Source: My Housing Market / Property Update. Auction data week ending 9 May 2026. ANZ and Canstar forecasts as published May 2026.

The world’s ultra-wealthy are moving capital — and Brisbane is now on their shortlist.

The Knight Frank Wealth Report 2026, released this week, delivers one of the most significant assessments of global wealth concentration in the 20-year history of the publication. Its conclusion for Australian property markets is unambiguous: the country sits at the intersection of two of the most powerful forces shaping global real estate — an accelerating domestic wealth boom and a structural shift in where the world’s richest individuals choose to live.

The headline number is striking. Globally, 89 people cross the US$30 million net worth threshold every single day. The world’s ultra-high-net-worth population — those worth more than US$30 million — reached 713,626 in 2026, up 30% from five years ago. The US accounts for 41% of all newly created ultra-wealthy individuals, but the story of where that wealth flows next is more geographically complex — and for Australia, more flattering — than the headline suggests.

Australia’s wealth trajectory is outlier territory

Australia’s ultra-high-net-worth population is forecast to grow by nearly 60% over the next five years, reaching 26,095 individuals — roughly one in every 1,000 residents. That pace puts it among the fastest-growing wealth markets in the developed world. More telling still: Australia’s billionaire population is forecast to increase by 77% by 2031, placing it fourth globally for billionaire growth, behind only Saudi Arabia, Poland and Sweden.

Knight Frank attributes this to more than rising asset prices. Australia’s wealth creation story, the report argues, is structurally deep — anchored in agriculture and mining, and increasingly driven by finance, business services and a maturing technology sector. In a world where wealth is becoming more mobile, that combination of durability and diversification matters.

Brisbane enters the global luxury conversation

The report’s Prime International Residential Index — which tracks luxury property price movements across more than 100 markets globally — names Brisbane alongside Miami and Mumbai as markets with material upside ahead. That is a significant designation. The PIRI 100, now in its 20th year, is one of the most closely watched benchmarks in global residential property.

The data supports the call. Super-prime apartment values in Brisbane have surged past the $9 million ceiling to trade above $15 million in just 12 months. Super-prime stock is now transacting above $48,000 per square metre. US$1 million buys 5% less Brisbane real estate today than it did in 2020 — a measure of how quickly the market has re-rated.

“Brisbane’s rise is part of a wider story about Queensland’s appeal to wealth,” said Adam Ross, McGrath’s head of international and private clients. “What we’re seeing is the convergence of major infrastructure investment, a favourable planning environment and growing international awareness ahead of the Olympics. There’s a real can-do attitude in the city. You can get an 80-storey tower approved in less than a year. Anywhere else in Australia, that’s simply not happening.”

Luxury prices across Brisbane grew 2.1% in 2025. The Gold Coast followed at 2.8%, with prestige homes above $22.5 million becoming increasingly common. Knight Frank’s analysis suggests the structural conditions for sustained outperformance are firmly in place.

What the wealthy actually want is changing

Perhaps the most consequential finding in the 2026 report is not about price growth at all. It is about demand composition. Knight Frank identifies a fundamental shift in luxury consumption — what it terms the “transformation economy” — in which the world’s wealthiest buyers are moving away from conspicuous acquisition toward investments that support personal wellbeing, longevity and a sense of belonging.

“Luxury is fundamentally evolving from the simple accumulation of goods towards more meaningful, experience-led consumption,” the report states. “Consumer choices underpin the growth of the transformation economy, prioritising investments that facilitate personal growth, wellness and a sense of belonging.”

This is not a marginal preference shift. It is reshaping how luxury residential product is conceived, positioned and priced. Developers and investors who recognised this shift early — embedding wellness infrastructure as a core design principle rather than an amenity afterthought — are increasingly the ones capturing the most discerning buyers at the top of the market.

The window is narrowing

Knight Frank’s broader framing in the 2026 report is deliberately cautious. The global economy faces renewed inflationary pressures, fractured supply chains and the residual effects of geopolitical conflict on energy markets. Central banks are navigating a more complex environment than at any point in the past decade.

In that context, the report identifies prime residential property — particularly in markets with structural supply constraints, strong underlying demand and genuine global appeal — as one of the more defensible allocations available to private capital.

For a city that spent two decades being underwritten as Australia’s third market, the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2026 represents something of a formal reclassification. Brisbane is not emerging. It has emerged.

Source: Knight Frank Wealth Report 2026, 20th Edition. Knight Frank Prime International Residential Index (PIRI 100). Data: Knight Frank Wealth Sizing Model. Quotes: McGrath International & Private Clients.

In 1970, a Danish longitudinal study of 2,872 pairs of twins produced a finding that cut against decades of received wisdom about human health. Genes, the researchers concluded, determine roughly 20 percent of how long a person lives. The remaining 80 percent is shaped by environment and lifestyle.

That research would later inform Dan Buettner’s Blue Zone studies — the demographic analysis that mapped the world’s longest-lived communities from Okinawa to Sardinia and identified their shared characteristics. What those communities had in common was not exceptional healthcare access or unusual genetic profiles. It was the design of daily life: walkable environments, embedded social structures, and proximity to physical activity, whole food, and meaningful community. Longevity, the data suggested, was less a medical outcome than an urban planning one.

Carlos Moreno, a Franco-Colombian urbanist and scientific director at Paris-Sorbonne, arrived at a complementary conclusion from the city planning side. In a framework he called chrono-urbanism, Moreno argued that the relevant unit of urban measurement was not distance but time — specifically, the time required to access the six functions essential to daily life: work, commerce, healthcare, education, food, and leisure. His model, presented at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, proposed that a well-designed neighbourhood could deliver all six within 15 minutes on foot or by bicycle.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo adopted the framework as policy, and the ville du quart d’heure became a core pillar of her 2020 re-election platform. The concept has since been implemented in varying forms in Melbourne, Milan, Portland, and a growing number of global cities. Urban economists and public health researchers have documented measurable improvements in resident wellbeing, physical activity rates, and social cohesion in districts that meet the criteria.

The Commercial Translation

What the policy literature describes in population-level terms, the real estate sector has been quantifying at the asset level. The Global Wellness Institute’s Build Well to Live Well report, updated in 2025, found that wellness-integrated residential properties in the middle and upper market segments command a price premium of 10–25% relative to comparable conventional stock. The wellness real estate market reached $584 billion globally in 2024 — the fastest-growing sector in the wellness economy, expanding at an annual compound rate of 19.5% since 2019, with projections reaching $1.1 trillion by 2029.

The GWI identifies several factors driving that premium: proximity to fitness and health infrastructure, access to community amenity, walkability, and the degree to which a development actively curates its surrounding environment rather than simply occupying it.

The shift in retail anchoring has reinforced this dynamic from a different direction. A 2017 Wall Street Journal analysis found that fitness operators had become sought-after anchor tenants in major retail developments — replacing department stores as the category most reliably capable of generating daily foot traffic, increasing dwell time, and sustaining the ecosystem of surrounding retailers. More than 57 million Americans were gym members at the time of that report, with membership growing 26% over the prior decade and skewing significantly toward higher-income households. The gym had migrated from amenity to infrastructure.

Long Island, Newstead

Against that backdrop, Cavcorp’s Long Island precinct in Newstead represents a deliberate exercise in applied urban theory rather than speculative development.

The precinct is anchored by Total Fusion Platinum — a four-level, 40-plus class wellness facility operating across Brisbane’s Newstead Gasworks district. At capacity, Total Fusion accommodates more than 10,000 members and generates over 2,000 daily active member visits through the precinct. By the metrics the retail analysts apply, it functions as exactly what the research describes: an anchor tenant that drives foot traffic, creates routine, and supports the viability of the surrounding commercial environment.

The wider precinct extends that framework into the residential interface. Farmers’ markets, curated dining and retail, piazza activations, and a locally produced community lifestyle guide — The 15 Minute City — have been integrated as part of an ongoing placemaking strategy. The Cavalé+ management program, operating across Cavcorp’s residential portfolio, supports resident activation and community engagement at the building level.

The investment thesis is supported by Cavcorp’s internal data across its Newstead residential portfolio: rental yields have tracked consistently 2% or more above comparable non-wellness-integrated stock in the same precinct, with capital growth differentials of up to 28% and measurable improvements in tenant retention relative to market benchmarks.

The Underlying Principle

What distinguishes the most effective examples of this model — whether in public policy or private development — is the degree to which wellness is treated as infrastructure rather than amenity. The 15-minute city works not because it offers wellness as an optional feature, but because it removes the friction between residents and the behaviours that sustain health. The Blue Zones work not because residents are disciplined, but because their environments make healthy choices the default.

The commercial real estate literature increasingly reflects the same insight. Buildings and precincts that embed wellness into the daily structure of resident life — not as a rooftop add-on but as a design principle — are outperforming those that do not, across yield, capital growth, and occupancy metrics.

The data supports a straightforward conclusion: the quality of a neighbourhood’s design is not incidental to the value of property within it. It is a primary determinant.

For those of us who have chosen to call Newstead home, this has never been a difficult place to love. The river at morning light. The walk along Breakfast Creek. James Street on a Friday evening. The rooftops, the restaurants, the quiet confidence of a city that never needed to shout about itself.

But the world is catching up.

In Resonance Consulting’s World’s Best Cities 2026 — one of the most comprehensive urban rankings on the planet, drawing on an Ipsos survey of more than 21,000 respondents across 30 countries — Brisbane jumped eleven places, from 90th to 79th. It was one of the biggest rises of any city globally. The report singled out Brisbane’s second-best air quality, fourth-best weather, and a wave of new developments drawing people outdoors and into the city’s growing cultural fabric.

That’s not a fluke. That’s a city in motion.

The numbers behind the feeling

What often gets missed in the lifestyle conversation is just how compelling the underlying fundamentals have become.

Brisbane’s apartment vacancy rate currently sits at 1.1% — already the tightest it has been in a generation. By 2030, CBRE forecasts it falling further still, to 0.7%. At that level, the market isn’t just tight. It’s historically unprecedented.

Demand is running at roughly 14,000 apartments per year. Supply is delivering around 5,000. That’s not a gap — it’s a canyon. And with construction costs forecast to escalate by 8% in 2027 and 10% in 2028, the economics of new development become increasingly difficult over time. What’s being built now — and what completes before that cost wave hits — carries a structural advantage that compounds year after year.

Apartment prices in Brisbane are forecast to grow by 28% between now and 2030. The strongest growth is forecast in 2026 and 2027 — not later, not at some hypothetical future point. Now.

The 2032 effect — and why it’s already in motion

Brisbane’s $120 billion Olympic infrastructure pipeline is often spoken about as something that will happen. What’s less understood is that it is already happening — and that the economic multiplier effect, the transport upgrades, the precinct transformations, are already being priced into the city’s trajectory.

History offers useful perspective. London’s East Village — originally built as the 2012 Olympic Athletes’ Village — became one of the most sought-after new addresses in the city post-Games. Brisbane is building toward the same legacy. Newstead, Bowen Hills, Northshore Hamilton — these are the precincts at the centre of that story.

The city that hosts the Olympics in 2032 is not the same city it was five years prior. The preparation is the prize.

What this means if you own here

Owning in inner Newstead or Teneriffe right now is not simply a lifestyle decision — though it is certainly that. It is a position held in one of the most structurally undersupplied, liveability-driven, and infrastructure-backed markets in the country.

The world’s ranking systems are beginning to reflect what residents of this peninsula have known for some time. Brisbane is not catching up. Brisbane is arriving.

And the people who chose to be here early will look back on this period as the one that mattered most.

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Clear your calendar and alert the group chat. Brisbane’s most fashionable night out is returning to James Street — and this time, it’s dripping in gold.

On Thursday 19 March, James St Up Late transforms the precinct into a glowing after-dark playground of late-night shopping, champagne pours and the kind of spontaneous decisions that only feel sensible once the sun goes down.

Consider this your invitation to indulge in a little midweek glamour. Over 70 of James Street’s most coveted boutiques and dining destinations will trade late for one evening only, with exclusive offers, pop-ups, prizes and special experiences unfolding along the street.

Expect polished shopfronts, music spilling onto the pavement and a distinctly golden atmosphere as Fortitude Valley’s most stylish strip comes alive well after dark.

Start Your Night The Right Way

For Newstead locals looking to start the evening properly, Evra Bar is opening its doors early with a pre-shopping ritual worth arriving for.

From 5pm, the bar will be pouring a line-up of happy hour aperitifs alongside a bar menu designed to fuel the night ahead — think something crisp in hand before the stroll down to James Street begins. The perfect first stop before the golden glow of Up Late takes over the precinct.

The Shopping Circuit

For one night, James Street becomes a glossy loop of fashion, beauty and indulgence.

A few highlights worth pencilling into your route:

New arrival Alpha60 is offering a cheeky 20 percent off storewide, while Camargue is turning shopping into a game with in-store bingo and prizes to match.

At Gerard’s, cult hair authority St Louis Says will pop up with complimentary pours and product spoils.

New wine bar Fountainhead Winehouse will host refined tastings inside Mud Australia, pairing ceramics with equally elegant wines.

Meanwhile, Penelope Bistro & Bar is serving its version of girl dinner for the night — tiny martinis, truffle fries and classic Caesars — and Venroy is elevating your next escape with a Travel Essentials bag giveaway, plus gifts with entry.

In other words: arrive early and wear comfortable shoes.

The Party Bags

The carpark between Harveys and CAMILLA will undergo its own transformation, becoming the Up Late Quad — a hub of giveaways, treats and high-value temptation.

This is where you’ll find the coveted 2026 James St Up Late Party Bags, each valued at more than $600 and filled with favourites including Go-To Skincare, Ultra Violette, Ssaint, Messina, Silk Laundry, K18 and more.

And because a little suspense is part of the fun, one in every 20 bags contains an extra-special prize.

For those planning to shop with endurance, Allpress Atelier will be serving complimentary affogatos to keep the evening going.

One Night Only

If previous years are anything to go by, James St Up Late will once again be the social event of the season.

So gather the group chat, pull out something fabulous to wear and lean into the gold theme — because when James Street throws a party, Brisbane shows up.

Where: James St, Fortitude Valley
When: Thursday 19 March, 5pm – 8pm

 Brisbane penthouse within the wellness-focused Luminare apartment and health complex has hit the market with a $20 million price guide, which, if achieved, would be the Queensland capital’s most expensive apartment ever sold.

Designed with a focus on health, beauty and wellness, the penthouse’s price-tag reflects consecutive years of strong growth in the Brisbane market, as well as the premium now placed on life-extending and enhancing features integrated into residential construction.

While Brisbane’s house-price record was recently raised to $25 million after the sale of a New Farm riverfront mansion, the apartment record stands at the $17.5 million paid by Rich Lister coal baron Matt Latimore for a New Farm penthouse purchased from fund manager Ben Cleary.

Another penthouse in Newstead’s Pier development was sold by owners, retired company director Howard Stack and his wife Hilary in late 2024. While early reports speculated the four-bedroom sky home on Newstead Terrace sold for near $20 million, last year’s settlement show the luxury apartment traded for $16 million.

Now, the four-bedroom Luminare penthouse overlooking Brisbane’s CBD is vying for the title of Brisbane’s most expensive apartment. The penthouse comes with an alfresco entertaining zone with quartz ‘summer kitchen’ and a hot and cold plunge pool.

There is a soundproof home office, travertine gas fireplace, and in lieu of a typical walk-in-robe, the master suite comes with a 45-square metre “dressing gallery”, a stone island dresser and a built-in Casoro safe.

Developed by Damien Cavallucci’s Cavcorp, the just-launched penthouse occupies half a floor of the Luminare building, which is built around TotalFusion, Australia’s largest premium health and wellness club.

Residents can partake in the facility’s array of cutting-edge wellness features including a hypoxic altitude chamber, inclined Kilter Board climbing wall, saunas, flotation tanks, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and a salt cave for halotherapy.

The penthouse is listed with Cavale’s Ari Shahbazifar. Learn more here.

As the global wellness economy continues its rapid expansion — poised to reach well into the trillions — a new frontier has emerged at the intersection of real estate, longevity science and everyday living: wellness residences. According to the latest Future of Wellness report unveiled by the Global Wellness Summit, these new living environments are transforming how we think about homes, not just as spaces to occupy, but as active contributors to healthspan and quality of life.

From Passive Homes to Proactive Health Hubs

Traditional residential design has long prioritised features like location, aesthetics and comfort. Today, a deeper paradigm shift is underway — one that embeds wellness into the very foundation of where we live. Termed “longevity residences” in the 2026 wellness trends report, these communities and homes expand the role of real estate into preventive health, diagnostics, longevity-centric technology and daily wellness infrastructure.

Unlike conventional wellness real estate — which might include gyms, spas or green spaces — longevity residences go far beyond amenities. They integrate health­-supporting systems into the architecture, operations and lifestyle offerings of the community itself.

What Defines a Longevity Residence?

Longevity residences are characterised by:

• Architectural and environmental design aligned with circadian rhythms, immune health and stress reduction
• On-site access to advanced diagnostics, preventive medicine and biometric tracking tools
• AI-powered personalisation of health behaviours directly into daily living routines
• Seamless support for biohacking, longevity-centric care and medical-grade monitoring
• Programs and services that cultivate holistic long-term health — from sleep optimisation to metabolic health and cognitive vitality

Homes and communities are no longer passive backdrops — they are being designed as living wellness ecosystems that help residents manage, measure and optimise health long before clinical care is needed.

Why Now? The Drivers Behind Wellness Real Estate Growth

This shift isn’t happening in isolation. Several global forces are accelerating the trend:

• Ageing populations are increasingly prioritising quality of life and proactive health measures.
• Wellness technology and AI-enabled health systems are becoming more accessible and integrative.
• Wellness economics continues to grow, creating an appetite for residential solutions that deliver measurable health benefits.
• Investors and developers are recognising that health-forward design commands premium demand in an increasingly crowded real estate market.

In essence, longevity residences represent not just a new category of real estate, but a reimagined value proposition: properties that do more than shelter their occupants — they actively support longer, healthier and more vibrant lives.

The Home as the Ultimate Wellness Asset

As wellness continues to expand beyond spas, retreats and clinics into everyday life, the home is emerging as the most powerful and personal wellness tool of all. Longevity residences are redefining what it means to age well, situating wellness at the core of where we live, work and play.

In 2026 and beyond, the value of real estate will increasingly be measured not just in location, views or finishes — but in its ability to foster health, resilience and life-long wellbeing.

With tourism thriving, millionaire numbers climbing and the Olympics on the horizon, brands are turning their attention to the Queensland capital as major retail developments get underway.

When Vanessa Spencer was weighing up where to open her next boutique, online sales data pointed her in the direction of Brisbane. With existing stores in Melbourne and Sydney, she decided on the capital of Queensland as the Australian state was already the upmarket retailer’s third-largest customer base. “But it’s a little bit more than that,” says The New Trend co-founder and brand director.

“It’s also instinct. Brisbane just feels like such an up-and-coming city. There’s such a beautiful energy there right now. It’s about culture; it’s about inclusion; and there’s this sense of community which is unlike anything else,” Spencer adds.

More specifically, Spencer set her sights on James Street in the suburb of Fortitude Valley, where she opened the doors to the new branch of her multi-brand store in October. Situated across the snaking Brisbane River to the east of the Central Business District (CBD), this leafy pocket is a treasure trove of independent retail, Australian brands and hospitality offerings.

“It’s such a unique part of the Australian retail landscape,” says Spencer, whose boutique has historic links to a Canadian counterpart of the same name but is independently owned and operated in Australia, stocking brands like Bottega Veneta, Loewe, Christopher Esber and Alemais. “You can’t compare [the area] to anywhere else in the country.”

Over the past decade or so, most major luxury brands moved into the CBD, with many situated on the ground floor of the QueensPlaza centre on the Queen St Mall, a pedestrian thoroughfare. These include Chanel, Gucci, Dior, Saint Laurent and Fendi. Australian brands Rebecca Vallance, Zimmermann, Aje, Oroton and Camilla are among those upstairs in the same centre.

Elsewhere in the CBD, Louis Vuitton relocated to a new flagship in 2023 in the former National Australia Bank building, which abuts QueensPlaza. Nearby Edward St also has a luxury contingent with stores from Hermès, Cartier and Canali.

It’s not hard to see the appeal of Brisbane, affectionately called Brissie by locals and known as Meanjin in the language of the area’s Indigenous Yuggera and Turrbal people.

“It’s a subtropical gem that has always walked to the beat of its own drum,” says Heidi Middleton, the Brisbane-raised co-founder of Sass & Bide. “It has really come into its own in the last five to 10 years. I feel like it’s quite a humble city; it’s not showy or brash. It’s sort of just been chipping away, doing its thing, and has built itself gently and slowly over time to evolve into this great city.”

The city’s unassuming nature is also reflected in its residents. Take Margot McKinney, a fourth-generation jeweller who regularly travels to work with her international clientele and still finds herself having to explain that she isn’t based in Sydney or Melbourne. When people tell her they’ve never visited Brisbane, she says it’s easy to explain why they should. “It’s our secret city, [but] it’s the city you need to get to know because it’s where all the energy is moving to.”

Retail’s Next Expansion Phase

Brands looking to enter Brisbane or expand there are keeping a close eye on the other side of the Queen St Mall, where the Wintergarden Shopping Centre is situated.

Owned and operated by IFM Investors, this 13,000 sq m space is poised for redevelopment with an anticipated cost of around 1 billion Australian dollars ($670 million). It is expected to start late this year and open in time for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, incorporating the Wintergarden, neighbouring 155 Queen St (the home of Zara’s three-storey flagship), the Regent Theatre and the InterContinental Brisbane (formerly Hilton Hotel).

“We have had a lot of interest from luxury and what we call ‘sub-luxury’ brands that we believe are using their online shopping data to track the cities their clients live and shop in, and we only see this interest increasing,” says Leah Mienert, IFM Investors Regional Asset Manager.

“Brisbane CBD currently offers luxury flagships and custom flagship stores and demand for larger footprints from new luxury brands is increasing. We’re accommodating these unique footprints in our development planning,” she adds.

Ilias Tsangaris, director of commercial property advisors InCommercial, believes the Olympics will accelerate rather than create interest in the Brisbane market. “More international brands will be showing interest earlier than expected because they’ll want to get in pretty quickly to secure their spots,” he says, adding that Albert and Adelaide Streets in the CBD are also improving.

The city’s deputy mayor Fiona Cunningham says Brisbane offers a “sweet spot” for retailers. “We have strong population growth, a thriving tourism market and a lifestyle-led culture which naturally encourages spending in fashion, dining and the experience economy.”

Beyond luxury, Queen St Mall is also home to local high-street brands including Cue and Country Road, which opened its new flagship in the heritage-listed Bank Building in August. These are priced above H&M, Uniqlo and Zara, three international mass- and fast-fashion brands that have firmly established themselves in Queensland after entering the Australian market in the early 2010s.

That said, H&M closed its Queen St Mall flagship in September after 10 years in the location, reportedly in line with around 200 global closures in 2025. The Swedish retailer remains in seven Queensland locations. In addition to Zara’s mall flagship, the Spanish retailer has one suburban and one Gold Coast location. Uniqlo has a total of six Queensland stores.

From Contemporary Giants to Niche Luxury

The lush green stretch of James St that attracted Spencer from The New Trend features an enviable mix of independent retailers. This includes standalone boutiques from the likes of Zimmermann, P.Johnson Men’s and Women’s tailors, Scanlan Theodore, Bassike and Brisbane designer Gail Sorronda. Also present is multi-brand retailer Camargue, which began introducing Brisbane to cutting-edge international labels in 1978, and today stocks Comme des Garcons, Dries van Noten and Jacquemus among others.

Another landmark on James St is the Calile Hotel, a meeting place for locals and a hub for travellers looking for a more unique, design-led experience than a CBD five-star. The New Trend is situated at the front of the hotel, which has proved a winning combination for the retailer, both for serving existing customers visiting from Sydney and Melbourne, as well as attracting a new customer base in Brisbane and from overseas.

Spencer says the mix of people visiting James St includes those living in the surrounding suburbs, as well as shoppers from areas surrounding Brisbane, including the Gold Coast, a beachfront city one hour’s drive south that includes Surfers Paradise. Noosa is two hours’ drive north in the Sunshine Coast and Byron Bay is less than two hours’ drive south, just over the border in New South Wales. “They make a day of it, they go for lunch, they really experience the area. It is a very special place.”

Middleton, who launched her current label ArtClub in 2019, recently returned to her hometown after spending more than 20 years in Sydney. Opening her first space for ArtClub on James St in a former Sass & Bide store was a full-circle moment. Her husband, Michael Malouf is part of the family behind the Calile hotel and one of the driving forces behind the development of the James St precinct over the past 20 years.

High-end homeware and design retailers also call the neighbourhood home alongside beauty pioneers Mecca and Aesop. “You have this beautiful edit of retail and some of the best restaurants are now at home in that precinct as well,” says Middleton.

A Centre of Economic Growth

Brisbane may not be a household name beyond Australasia, but in seven years’ time it will be. The 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games will bring the city global attention, an influx of visitors, and media coverage from far and wide.

Cunningham says the event is “a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Brisbane”, adding that initial estimates show the Games could inject 8.1 billion Australian dollars ($5.5 billion) into the urban economy. But, she adds, “the real benefits would be the lasting infrastructure for our region. From upgraded entertainment venues to more interconnected transport options like the Brisbane Metro, the Games have already helped shape our legacy.”

“Amongst businesspeople, and people who understand exactly what having the Olympics does for a city, there is enormous excitement,” says McKinney. “It will change Brisbane forever and people who recognise that and get into business in Brisbane now will definitely reap the benefit.”

The city was already on an upward trajectory before it won the Olympic bid five years ago. Brisbane has long been Australia’s third-largest city by population, though reports suggest Perth may overtake this position by 2050. In 2024, Brisbane’s population was 2.78 million, roughly half of Sydney’s, but a significant increase from a few years earlier. Notably, Sydney recorded a net loss of migration within Australia, while Brisbane experienced the highest influx.

“The pandemic saw a shift from the larger cities to Brisbane and south-east Queensland,” said Mienert, citing people’s “realisation that you don’t have to be tied to a certain city.” The influx from other states “correlated with an increased demand in businesses who wanted to occupy [Brisbane’s] CBD retail spaces — including luxury brands.”

It’s not just the population that’s growing. The state’s economy is also steadily heading upwards, with GSP (gross state product) the second highest in the country, up 2.2 percent against a national average of 1.4 percent for the 2024-25 financial year.

Like the country’s largest state Western Australia, mining (including for coal, lead, zinc, bauxite and copper) is Queensland’s largest industry. Tourism is also booming. Queensland is the second-largest tourism market in Australia, thanks in no small part to natural attractions such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree Rainforest and the Whitsunday Islands.

Brisbane’s gateway status brings other advantages, says local jeweller McKinney, who recently opened a boutique in Beverly Hills and is set to open on New York’s Madison Ave in the coming months. “Increasingly there are more international clients, people flying into Brisbane and using it as a stopping-off point before they go to the Barrier Reef.” Further attractions include the city’s arts scene, its physical beauty, waterfront developments, “amazing lifestyle and some of [Australia’s] finest dining.”

Wealthy locals also play a major role in keeping the local luxury market buoyant. Brisbane is currently ranked among the top 50 cities in the world for millionaire population, according to high-net-worth individual residency firm Henley and Partners, with numbers growing 22 percent between 2014 to 2024. By 2025, the city boasted 26,400 US-dollar millionaires, slightly less than Berlin but more than Tel Aviv.

How to Cater to Locals

The city’s sub-tropical climate has a distinct impact on the merchandise mix, with retailers suggesting that lighter fabrications and pared-back silhouettes are more popular in Brisbane than in Sydney or Melbourne.

But where hot weather can sometimes lead to an overly casual wardrobe, Middleton says that Brisbane demonstrates quite the opposite, describing locals as discerning shoppers. “I always felt growing up that people almost enjoyed dressing up a bit more [here] because we were considered a little bit the country cousin of the [other Australian] cities. So, there was a bit more effort.”

McKinney, whose extravagant jewellery designs sit at the heady end of the luxury market, concurs. “Brisbane is definitely a very mature market. [Customers are] very sophisticated and well-travelled.”

In terms of style preferences, prints and brighter colours are popular and worn year-round, says Bridget Veals, executive general manager of womenswear, footwear and accessories at David Jones. The nationwide department store has Queensland branches in Brisbane’s CBD, Indooroopilly, Carindale and Chermside suburbs as well as two locations on the Gold Coast and one on the Sunshine Coast.

“Resort brands, swim, all of that can keep going in Queensland all year round [whereas] the longevity of those brands on the floor can be really difficult [in some other places],” states Veals.

The region’s almost endless summer means that merchandise can be trialled in Brisbane before the rest of the country, Veals explains, noting that the quality of life and sense of community bring other advantages. “People love living in Queensland so much that you don’t have staff turnover at the same rate,” she quips.

With its winning combination of economic growth, an attractive lifestyle offer and new developments being put in place ahead of the Olympics, the city is preparing to usher in a new era for locals and visitors alike. Global retailers, take note.

Brisbane’s apartment market is entering 2026 with strong underlying momentum, underpinned by sustained demand, limited new supply and a structural shift in buyer behaviour that shows little sign of reversing.

Latest data from the PropTrack Home Price Index confirms Brisbane units were one of the strongest-performing segments nationally over the past year, with apartment values rising 18.3 per cent, adding around $125,500 to the median price. More importantly, market analysts say the conditions driving this growth are set to persist well into 2026.

Apartments Emerge as the Engine of Growth

While Brisbane’s broader housing market has performed strongly, apartments have increasingly become the city’s growth driver. Affordability constraints, demographic change and lifestyle preferences are pushing buyers toward well-located units as a primary choice rather than a fallback.

As Brisbane’s median dwelling value moves further beyond the $1 million mark, apartments are now the most realistic entry point for a growing cohort of buyers — including downsizers, interstate migrants, professionals and long-term renters transitioning into ownership.

This demand is colliding with a severely constrained supply pipeline.

Supply Shortages Set to Intensify

New apartment construction across Brisbane remains well below historical averages, impacted by high construction costs, financing challenges and delayed project commencements. As a result, the number of new units expected to be delivered in 2026 and beyond is unlikely to meet population-driven demand.

Economists note that this imbalance is creating a durable floor under apartment prices.

REA Group senior economist Anne Flaherty said that while interest rates remain a variable, structural factors are expected to outweigh short-term monetary headwinds.

“Home prices are predicted to move to new highs in 2026,” she said, pointing to constrained housing supply and ongoing demand as key drivers, even if borrowing conditions tighten.

Momentum Persists Despite Rate Uncertainty

Although interest rate cuts supported price growth through 2025, Brisbane’s apartment market has continued to show resilience even as the outlook for rates becomes less certain. Monthly figures show Brisbane unit values rising into December, while Sydney and Melbourne recorded declines.

This divergence suggests Brisbane’s growth cycle is being driven less by credit conditions and more by fundamentals — population growth, housing undersupply and relative value.

Government incentives such as the five per cent deposit scheme are also expected to disproportionately benefit the apartment sector, where price points remain more accessible to first-home buyers.

The Gap Between Houses and Units Continues to Close

Another trend supporting momentum into 2026 is the narrowing price gap between houses and apartments. Long viewed as a secondary asset class, apartments are increasingly being valued on lifestyle, amenity and location rather than land size alone.

In Brisbane, this convergence reflects a market recalibration rather than a temporary surge — aligning the city more closely with global urban centres where high-quality apartments command long-term price resilience.

Outlook: A Market Still Moving Forward

With population growth remaining strong, new supply constrained and buyer preferences continuing to evolve, Brisbane’s apartment market appears positioned for continued growth into 2026.

For owners, this momentum reinforces the value of holding quality, well-located apartments. For buyers, it highlights a narrowing window of opportunity as competition intensifies and supply remains limited.

Brisbane’s apartment market is no longer catching up — it is setting the pace.