With more than $100 billion of infrastructure projects underway, accelerated by the 2032 Olympic Games, economic growth that continues to outpace many Australian cities, and record population growth, Brisbane is fast becoming a key market for institutional capital.

By population growth alone, South East Queensland is adding the equivalent of a Canberra every five years. Greater Brisbane is forecast to expand at up to 2.1% per annum¹ through to 2046, and its economy contributed $201 billion in 2024. This structural transformation will see Brisbane as an increasingly attractive destination for off-shore capital. Brisbane offers one of the most concentrated growth profiles across Australia’s major real estate markets and represents one of the most compelling investment opportunities in the country today.

Infra-led, inner-city renewal

The $100.6 billion major projects pipeline spans transport, commercial, residential, industrial and essential services, with $44 billion allocated to civil and infrastructure alone, including $25 billion in transport². What matters for investors is not just the scale, but the sequencing. This capital is already being deployed and its impact on connectivity, accessibility and land values is already visible.

Brisbane's transport and logistics sector is already well positioned, contributing $16 billion to the city's economy in 2024 and becoming a core hub for exports to the Asia Pacific due to the efficiency of its logistics networks. Exports to APAC are anticipated to grow at a real rate of 3.5% per year, with sustained regional demand placing Queensland only behind Western Australia as the country's largest exporter to Asia².

Major projects such as Cross River Rail, which will increase peak rail capacity into the CBD by over 50%, and the Brisbane Metro, which will add 30 million public transport seats per year through Stage One with Stage Two already underway, are materially improving connectivity across the CBD and inner-city precincts³. The result is inner-city renewal and mixed-use intensification.

Government policy reinforces this direction, with the Queensland Government's Brisbane 2032 Delivery Plan placing a strong emphasis on upgrading and re-using existing infrastructure, with post-Games legacy outcomes prioritised over one-off event assets. This is intended to reduce the risk of stranded infrastructure and support more durable investment returns⁴.

Construction activity reflects the same momentum. Building expenditure reached $24 billion in 2024, with the sector forecast to grow at 3.5% per annum to 2031, underpinned by a policy environment that has actively supported delivery.

The Olympics effect

The Games have accelerated Brisbane's transformation, but the structural growth story runs well beyond 2032. The Delivery Plan is one component of a broader pipeline, not its foundation.

Colliers' Brisbane 2032 research points to the Games unlocking long-planned renewal across precincts including Victoria Park, Bowen Hills, Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley - development in well-located, established areas that already stand to benefit from improved transport access⁵.

London's 2012 Games are widely regarded as one of the most successful Olympic real estate legacies on record - producing a new Grade A office district at Endeavour Square, a major retail hub at Westfield Stratford, and a technology cluster on what had been brownfield land⁶. Brisbane's fundamentals, including its population base, infrastructure pipeline and supply dynamics, put it in a strong position to produce something comparable.

Brisbane's position is also materially different from the cities most associated with post-Games underperformance. It enters 2032 with a chronic supply deficit across commercial sectors and a population growth trajectory that is structural rather than event driven. The Games might be a six-week event, but the demand fundamentals that underpin Brisbane's investment case will still be there in 2033.

The opportunity for core real estate

We see Brisbane at a clear inflection point. Structural undersupply, accelerating infrastructure spend and rising global visibility are converging while core real estate remains priced as though the growth story is still speculative. That misalignment is the opportunity we are positioned to capture, and the data across core real estate sectors bears it out. The case is one of total return. Income is underpinned by tight vacancy and constrained supply, with capital upside available as pricing converges on fundamentals over the cycle. And while the thesis is not without risk - construction-cost escalation, execution risk across the Olympic build, the timing of new supply and the pace of any cap-rate movement will all shape returns - these are largely correlated with entry point and timing rather than direction.

In office, net effective rents grew 10.9% in the year to Q2 2026, the fastest rate of any CBD in Australia⁷, supported by sustained white-collar employment growth expected to underpin demand across South East Queensland for the next decade. Demand was strong through Q2 26, with 68,000 sqm of net absorption, well above long-run averages, including 21,000 sqm this quarter — the strongest of any CBD nationally⁷. Take-up held across grades, supported by SME tenant growth and centralisations, with ConocoPhillips' 3,200 sqm lease underscoring the continued flight-to-quality theme. Total vacancy fell 90 basis points over the quarter to 10.6%, while prime incentives tightened to 38%⁷. Brisbane also carries the largest supply pipeline of any CBD, with three plans-approved developments expected to deliver more than 122,000 sqm on completion in 2030 and 2031⁷. Prime Sydney CBD yields have already compressed 13 basis points this quarter, marking the first office re-rating of the current cycle. Brisbane's are yet to follow⁸ - that gap is where the opportunity sits.

Industrial is equally attractive. Brisbane's southern and Trade Coast industrial markets combined for 569,977 sqm of gross take-up over the trailing 12 months to Q1 2026, comfortably above trend⁸; with 108,000 sqm leased in Q1 alone⁸. Warehouse construction has also risen 115% over five years to 2025, more than double the rate in Sydney and Melbourne⁹. Amazon's $750 million robotics fulfilment centre at Flagstone is a signal of institutional-grade occupier demand arriving at scale⁸.

Retail completes the picture. South East Queensland regional centres recorded the strongest specialty rent growth in the country at 3.8% year-on-year to Q2 2026, with yields flat and no new supply of consequence in the pipeline⁸. No new super-regional centre has opened in Australia since Westfield Bondi Junction in 2004, and with construction costs up a third over five years to 2025, that supply constraint is durable. The income case for well-located existing assets is strong precisely because new competition is structurally unlikely.

Dexus in Brisbane: a long-term capital commitment

We have been building our Brisbane position across office, logistics, retail, healthcare and social infrastructure for some time, with our portfolio providing direct exposure to each of the themes outlined above. The investment in Westfield Chermside reflects the retail thesis - a dominant, well-located super-regional centre in a market where no new supply is coming and specialty rent growth is running at the strongest rate in the country. The $500 million conversion of 41 George Street into student accommodation reflects the living sector opportunity - repositioning a CBD asset into an undersupplied, structurally supported alternative use, backed by Brisbane's growing university and knowledge economy base.

It is Waterfront Brisbane, however, jointly owned by Dexus and the Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (DWPF), that most clearly demonstrates how private sector investment can strengthen and build on the public investment already shaping the city.

The precinct’s 250 metre Riverwalk is an early proof point – a $42 million transformation delivered on time through Waterfront Brisbane’s partnership with Brisbane City Council. Replacing a constrained path with a generous riverside promenade of at least six metres in width, the upgraded Riverwalk enhances accessibility, safety and connectivity along one of Brisbane’s busiest active transport corridors, while introducing new public art and high-quality amenity. Since reopening in mid-February 2026, the Riverwalk has already welcomed more than 200,000 visitors, reinforcing its role as both critical infrastructure and a place people actively choose to spend time. As part of the broader $2.5 billion transformation of the Eagle Street Pier and waterfront, the Riverwalk contributes to a hectare of new public realm designed to support Brisbane’s evolving riverside lifestyle and future global events.

Brisbane's trajectory is structural. Population growth, infrastructure investment, constrained supply and increasing global relevance are converging in a way few Australian markets can match. For long-term investors, the opportunity is not simply participation in a growing city, but exposure to an urban economy that is still being repriced to reflect its future role. Waterfront Brisbane is our clearest expression of that conviction.

[1] Queensland Government Statistician’s Office

[2] Brisbane Economic Development Agency, State of the City 2025

[3] Dexus Australian Real Assets Review Q3 2025

[4] Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Delivery Plan, Queensland Government, 2025

[5] Colliers, Brisbane 2032 Research Report, 2025

[6] Stratford delivers a gold medal performance, JLL, 2022

[7] Dexus ARAR Q3 2026

[8] Dexus ARAR Q2 2026

[9] Dexus ARAR Q4 2025