{"id":53852,"date":"2026-07-19T21:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/53852\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T21:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:30:17","slug":"right-place-right-time-how-family-homes-double-in-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/53852\/","title":{"rendered":"Right place, right time: how family homes double in value"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen and Hannah McGarry moved to Chermside five years after they arrived in Australia \u2013 and now they can\u2019t imagine living anywhere else.<\/p>\n

The pair pushed their budget to live in a suburb close to a shopping centre and public transport, buying their home nine years ago for $821,000.<\/p>\n

Now, the property\u2019s value has more than doubled, estimated to be worth around $2m.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen to 15 years ago, I don\u2019t think Chermside might have had the reputation it has today<\/a>,\u201d Mr McGarry said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they changed the shopping centre up the road and they gave it a revamp, they made it so we didn\u2019t have to go into the city anymore \u2013 we had it all up the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chermside has been named one of Queensland\u2019s top \u2018shopping centre suburbs\u2019: areas where buyers are willing to pay what they have to for easy access to food, transport and amenities.<\/p>\n

Place Advisory research found home hunters will often pay up to 15 per cent more for houses and units<\/a> near shopping hubs for their accessibility, which can save up to $3,000 per person each year in fuel costs.<\/p>\n

Only 33.7 per cent of Brisbane residents live within 800m of high frequency public transport, making suburbs like Chermside that much more appealing for buyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe catch up with friends who had a young family like us, and the shopping centre is definitely a great meeting place,\u201d Mr McGarry said.<\/p>\n

The family are now selling their home at 9 Bundal St<\/a>, but do not intend to leave the suburb.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be moving out of the area,\u201d Mr McGarry said. \u201cIf we move further out, we\u2019d definitely get a little more bang for our buck \u2026 but our friends are around here, and it\u2019s so convenient.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore families have moved into the area, and I think the families that have moved here are bringing a better vibe to the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Place Ascot agent Tony McLoughlin is helping the family sell their home, and said he had seen the suburb go through a major shift over 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember breaking the suburb record at $2.5m,\u201d he said. \u201cNow there are properties in excess of $3m in the suburb.<\/p>\n

\u201cChermside is one of the biggest shopping centres in SEQ, and a lot of people have held onto that tight-knit area near the shopping centre \u2026 it\u2019s becoming a lot more protected, because of the public transport.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr McLoughlin said Brisbane was quickly catching up to cities like Sydney and Melbourne, where it is often viewed as essential to have homes near shopping and transport needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a massive bearing on the price of property down there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBrisbane has always been that sleepy community that\u2019s chasing Sydney and Melbourne, and as the population continues to grow, those things are going to become the primary commodity in terms of price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as How buying in a smart location can double your home\u2019s value<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen and Hannah McGarry moved to Chermside five years after they arrived in Australia \u2013 and now they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99,17496,1898],"class_list":["post-53852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brisbane","tag-brisbane","tag-nicholas-finch","tag-reqld"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}