Brisbane's inner city: How a six-minute drive can cost you $1 million

Six minutes of driving is all it takes to save yourself a cool million dollars on a house.

In Ascot, the median price for a four-bedroom house is $1,713,000. Drive six minutes down the road to the little-known suburb of Banyo, and that median drops to a paltry $569,000.

Kate Peereboom, owner of Harcourts Ascot and long-time resident of Brisbane’s ultimate old money suburb, says Banyo has flown under the radar for a long time.

“But with prices like these, it won’t fly under the radar forever,” she says. “You’re literally six minutes drive from Ascot and we’ve seen what happens to suburbs on the fringe of expensive areas — they do well and increase dramatically (in price).”

Ms Peereboom, who has recently opened a new Harcourts in Banyo, says buyers come to her daily wanting a house, in Ascot, for around $600,000.

She has to gently break it to them that the entry-level price paid for a three-bedroom home in Ascot is more like $1.1 million — and when she points out they can go a few more kilometres out to either Nudgee or Banyo to save hundreds of thousands, they’re always shocked.

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“People have no idea. They’re surprised to see the value and the opportunity if they just look further outside of where they want,” Ms Peereboom says.

“Banyo is a suburb that’s really coming along. There’s a wine bar opening soon, there’s cafes, there’s a lot of new infrastructure going in. I’d say it’s right on the cusp of taking off.”

In the sought-after suburb of New Farm, the median price for a four bedroom house is a whopping $1.9 million, according to Domain Group figures.

And though it may be one of Brisbane’s most popular suburbs, it’s not one that everyone can afford. But travel across the Story Bridge to East Brisbane, and the median price for a four bedroom home falls by $1 million to only $913,000.

George Petavrakis of Ray White Bulimba says East Brisbane is an inner city pocket that has been overlooked for a long time.

“It’s funny, you’re just that little bit closer to the city than say Norman Park or Bulimba or Hawthorne but it’s much better value. It’s closer to the city but cheaper,” Mr Petavrakis says.

“It has had a bit of a boom in recent years but not like some of the suburbs around it. East Brisbane has a lot of catching up to do.”

Mr Petavrakis says some buyers prefer to move further out because East Brisbane has some commercial zones and a few flats.

“At the moment it’s not quite as suburban as Balmoral and Bulimba but give it a few years and it’ll be more developed. It’s a bit like Greenslopes was a few years ago, where it was much cheaper than the surrounding suburbs — but it’s risen massively in the last few years because of its proximity to the city.”

Other suburbs that can save you literally hundreds of thousands of dollars by driving a few minutes in the car are:

• Lutwyche— the median price for a three-bedroom house is $665,000. It’s a short drive from New Farm, where the median for a three-bedroom house is $1,305,000.
• Fairfield — the median price for a three-bedroom house is $661,000. It’s only two suburbs away from West End, where the median price for a three-bedroom house is $1.1 million.
• The Gap — the median price for a four-bedroom home is $725,000. It’s only a short drive from Paddington, where a four-bedder will set you back on average $1,192,000.