The Brisbane Olympics might see property prices rise in South East Queensland, according to research carried out by The Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA).

PIPA tracked changes in host cities going back to the 1984 Los Angeles games, and found that prices in certain areas rose due to the level of investment that accompanied the Olympics.

“We’ve done some research and looked at what has happened internationally, as well as what happened in Sydney,” said Peter Koulizos, CEO of PIPA.

“The bottom line is that it’s going to be good for Brisbane, but the benefits will vary depending on where the property is location and, more importantly, how much new infrastructure goes into the Brisbane Olympic Games.”

“London was one of the papers that I looked at, and it said that residential properties within where the host facilities were – whether they were the arenas or the athlete’s village – improved in value by 2-5%, compared to areas that we’re hosting any facilities.”

“2-5% is not huge, but when properties are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, an extra 2-5% can mean a lot.”

Improvements in infrastructure were the biggest driver of property price rises that could be seen as a result of the Brisbane Olympics. South East Queensland property prices are already growing at a huge rate, more than any other part of the Eastern Coast of Australia.

“It’s mainly the transport infrastructure that is the key,” said Koulizos. “The Brisbane Olympics could almost be nicknamed the ‘budget Olympics’, because 85% of the infrastructure is already there. They’ll have to build a new athlete’s village, but many of the sporting areas are already developed.”

“It’ll be the transport infrastructure that is built that currently doesn’t exist to get those people to those facilities. In particular, the transport infrastructure from the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast to get them to Brisbane.”

“Price is function of demand and supply, so the problem is that there’s a lot of spare land between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. So, if they were to just keep building new places there, it’s not going to do much for property prices for people who are already there.

“Whereas the Sunshine Coast has more natural landscapes that will never be built out for housing, so the supply is limited. Now, you can get from Brisbane to the Gold Coat pretty easily, on the highway or via rail. But there is no direct rail from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast.”

“If they were to improve that link, the benefit would be greater on the Sunshine Coast than the Gold Coast, because one expects more transport infrastructure will be put in linking Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast than to the Gold Coast, because with the Gold Coast, it’s already there.”

“The fixed rail is the big ticket item. If they put that in, you’ll see some exceptional property price rises in the Sunshine Coast.”