November 2023: Brisbane crosses Melbourne

Brisbane benefited from net interstate migration, lower entry prices for owner-occupiers, Olympic infrastructure capital, and a more permissive planning regime than Melbourne. The crossover was not a blip — through 2024 the gap widened.

For investors with Melbourne exposure acquired pre-2018, the rational move was partial rotation into SE Queensland new-build product. Many didn't — Melbourne under-performed every capital except Hobart through to mid-2025.