Why empty nesters are moving to Brisbane’s inner city

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rise residential developments in recent years." />Brisbane has seen a proliferation of high-rise residential developments in recent years.

At one time Brisbane wore a reputation as the last, true east coast bastion of the quarter-acre block – a time, not so long ago, when many developers focused on delivering the Australian dream as a three- or four-bedroom home with a landscaped garden front and back. 

How those times have changed.  

Interstate migration, the need to mitigate the transport and infrastructure pressures of vast urban sprawl, and a more visionary approach to inner-city planning have all triggered the growth of Brisbane upward rather than outward.

Investment in cultural precincts like South Bank have increased the appeal of inner-city living. Photo: Bradley Kanaris

There is little doubt that, for most people familiar with the city, the biggest change in the past decade has been to the skyline with a proliferation of high-rise residential, much of it with an equally high-end price point.

Add to that higher-density living through the subdivision of existing inner-suburban blocks, and the continuing emergence of master-planned developments superseding derelict or redundant inner-city industrial sites, and you have a recipe for urban transformation – and opportunity.

While there have been concerns about oversupply, Domain chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson believes that the Brisbane market will rebalance in the longer term. In the meantime, it has not put off opportunistic investors who see Brisbane apartment prices consistently close to half the cost of similar properties in Sydney.

Developers are catering to downsizers looking for quality inner-city apartments. Photo: Sekisui House

Opportunity, too, for people seeking to downsize from that large-block, high-maintenance suburban home to a modern, sophisticated inner-city apartment or town home.

“Downsizers” and so-called “empty-nesters” – people with older children who have left or are ready to leave the family suburban home – are now top-of-mind among developers aiming to offer quality inner-city apartment living with inner-city lifestyle amenity.

In more recent times, residents of this ilk have been attracted to a plethora of options such as the Hamilton Wharf development and associated Portside cruise terminal area on the Brisbane River, other riverside options in and around Coronation Drive at Milton, the Gasworks development in Newstead, and the range of apartments under way as part of the Showgrounds lifestyle and leisure transformation.

West End residents have a plethora of dining options on their doorstep, like local favourite The Gunshop Cafe." />West End residents have a plethora of dining options on their doorstep, like local favourite The Gunshop Cafe. Photo: Chris Hyde

Further afield, an easing of planning regulations as part of the Brisbane City plan has seen the expansion of apartment and townhouse options in suburbs as diverse as Chermside, Mitchelton, Nundah and Coopers Plains.

Judith Morrison, who lives in the Brisbane suburb of Corinda, well known for large, heritage-style timber homes on large blocks, is not only looking to downsize but also for a change of environment and lifestyle.

She and husband Dr Mark Davies have bought an apartment in the eclectic suburb of West End, which has seen its own exponential growth in apartment living in the past five years, almost as an extension of the huge residential and lifestyle infrastructure of neighbouring South Bank.

West Village in West End will have supermarkets, shops and restaurants on-site. Photo: Sekisui House

For Judith, it is a return to a place close to the heart.

“We used to live in West End in a little house. Then we had kids and decided we needed more room and to move to a bigger house. So we moved to Corinda. We renovated and ended up with a huge house. Of course we needed it at the time.

“We then recognised that the kids were grown up and getting ready to leave. And we also want to do some travelling and realised that all the stuff we had put into the house – pumps, solar panels and so on – would be too hard for the kids to maintain when we went away.

A combination of apartments, town homes and heritage lofts are on offer at West Village. Photo: Sekisui House

“We were looking for somewhere ideal to live. And somewhere where, if necessary, we could just lock up and leave.”

Judith admits that there are considerable challenges to downsizing, not least of which is the amount of available storage in an apartment. She said she recognised there would be some hard decisions about what personal items to keep and what would have to go.

The couple looked at several new apartment buildings close to the CBD, but Judith said she wasn’t comfortable with any of the options until they happened upon the West Village development in West End. “The others were beautiful, and modern and everything, but I just didn’t feel right,” Judith said.

Two iconic heritage buildings from the 1920s on what was a Peters ice-cream factory site are at the heart of the development between Boundary and Mollison streets – an easy walk from the Brisbane CBD and the South Bank cultural and entertainment precinct.

 “The good thing about West Village is its actual location. You are in central West End. Everything is a walk from there. You can walk to the city, or you can just sit upstairs and there’s coffee and there’s shopping on-site.”

While Judith is only in her mid-50s, she said she thought the development was ideal for older people. “It has a lot more going for it than many others,” she said.

They hope to move into their West Village Stage 1 apartment on scheduled completion towards the end of 2018.

West Village project director Andrew Thompson said the combination of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, town homes and heritage lofts had been designed to accommodate multiple residential styles, including downsizers and empty-nesters.

Andrew pointed to what he called “the full lifestyle package”: about one hectare of open space, a full-line Woolworths supermarket, galleries, medical facilities and on-site pharmacy, boutiques, and alfresco dining in a retail and entertainment hub linked by new pedestrian and cyclist-only laneways.

“West Village has joined the ranks of Australia’s most sought-after residential and lifestyle destinations,” Thompson  said. “An inner-city suburb with its own special charm offering empty-nesters a fusion of fashionable cafes, lively dining and cultural treasures.”