Brisbane suburb guides
Local guides to buying and borrowing in Brisbane suburbs. Each one covers who lives there, the types of homes, what lenders look at and the costs to plan for. We're starting in the inner city and adding suburbs over time.
Bowen Hills is an inner-city apartment suburb about 3 km from the CBD, home to the Ekka showgrounds and one of Queensland's busiest train stations. 93.3% of homes…
Read the Bowen Hills guideBrisbane City, the CBD, is home to more than 12,500 people, almost all in apartments (98.9%). Nearly a third of working residents walked to work in 2021. It's…
Read the Brisbane City guideEast Brisbane sits on the river about 3 km south-east of the city, between Kangaroo Point and Norman Creek. It's an even mix of old and new: 44.0%…
Read the East Brisbane guideFortitude Valley, 'the Valley', sits about 1.5 km north-east of the CBD. It's Brisbane's nightlife hub and home to James Street, Chinatown and the Brunswick Street Mall. 96.4%…
Read the Fortitude Valley guideHerston is a small inner-city suburb about 3 km north of the CBD, known for the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and the Herston Health Precinct. Its housing…
Read the Herston guideHighgate Hill rises to about 64 metres above a loop of the Brisbane River, 2 km from the city centre. Dornoch Terrace along its ridge has been a…
Read the Highgate Hill guideKangaroo Point is a peninsula across the river from the CBD, known for its cliffs, the Story Bridge and river views. It's mostly apartments (87.0%), from 1960s walk-ups…
Read the Kangaroo Point guideKelvin Grove is about 3 km north-west of the CBD and home to QUT's Kelvin Grove campus and the Kelvin Grove Urban Village. It's one of Brisbane's youngest…
Read the Kelvin Grove guideNew Farm fills a bend of the Brisbane River about 2 km from the CBD. Blocks of flats started going up here in the 1930s among streets of…
Read the New Farm guideNewstead sits on the river about 3.5 km north-east of the CBD, between Breakfast Creek and Teneriffe. The former industrial suburb of gasworks, woolstores and wharves is now…
Read the Newstead guidePaddington runs along a ridge about 3 km west of the CBD, with Given Terrace and Latrobe Terrace following the high ground. The suburb boomed after the tramline…
Read the Paddington guidePetrie Terrace is one of Brisbane's smallest and oldest suburbs, with just 1,168 residents on the ridge west of the CBD. It's known for Caxton Street, Victoria Barracks…
Read the Petrie Terrace guideRed Hill is named for its steep hills of red soil and rock, about 3 km north-west of the city. St Brigid's Church on the hilltop can be…
Read the Red Hill guideSouth Brisbane sits across the river from the CBD and takes in South Bank, the Cultural Centre and Musgrave Park. 93.7% of homes are apartments (many of them…
Read the South Brisbane guideSpring Hill sits on the ridge just above the CBD. It's close enough that almost a quarter of working residents walk to their job. It's also one of…
Read the Spring Hill guideTeneriffe is where Brisbane's wool once waited for ships. Brick woolstores went up beside the river from 1909 to the 1950s and many of them now hold apartments.…
Read the Teneriffe guideWest End wraps around a bend of the river about 3 km south-west of the CBD. It's known for Boundary Street, the Davies Park markets and a long…
Read the West End guideWoolloongabba, 'the Gabba', is about 3 km south of the CBD and home to the Brisbane Cricket Ground and the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Most homes are apartments (69.5%)…
Read the Woolloongabba guideAlbion sits around a busy train station about 5 km north-east of the city, between Breakfast Creek and Sandgate Road. Most homes are now apartments (74.1%), but character…
Read the Albion guideAscot is built around horse racing. Eagle Farm and Doomben racecourses take up a large part of the suburb and Racecourse Road was the original route from the…
Read the Ascot guideClayfield sits on the higher ground along Sandgate Road, about 7 km north-east of the CBD. In the late 1880s it rivalled Hamilton as one of the northside's…
Read the Clayfield guideHamilton is a river suburb with two sides. On the hill above Kingsford Smith Drive stand grand old homes, some built as early as the 1860s. Along the…
Read the Hamilton guideHendra grew up beside the racetracks. Horse trainers built homes and backyard stables close to Eagle Farm racecourse and in 1949 more than 50 trainers were listed in…
Read the Hendra guideKalinga is a small suburb with a big park. Heritage-listed Kalinga Park runs along Kedron Brook on its northern edge and the streets behind it are lined with…
Read the Kalinga guideNorth Brisbane covers the suburbs between the inner north and the Pine River, from Everton Park and Chermside out to Sandgate and Bald Hills. The ABS Brisbane -…
Read the North Brisbane guideWilston is a small, leafy suburb about 5 km north of the city, with its own train station and a village shopping strip on Kedron Brook Road. Most…
Read the Wilston guideBalmoral is a small suburb with a big name. It covers scarcely more than 1.5 square kilometres, yet the Balmoral name once covered a local government area of…
Read the Balmoral guideBulimba sits on a bend of the Brisbane River, with Oxford Street running from the ferry terminal up through the middle of the suburb. It's one of the…
Read the Bulimba guideBurbank is Brisbane's bush suburb. About half of it is taken up by the Tingalpa Reservoir and much of the rest is conservation land, koala habitat and acreage.…
Read the Burbank guideChandler is where Brisbane runs out of suburbs. It stretches east to Tingalpa Creek (the easternmost point of the Brisbane mainland) and much of it is still bushland,…
Read the Chandler guideGumdale is acreage with a young family feel. In the 2021 Census 99.5% of homes were separate houses, 85.5% had four or more bedrooms and six in ten…
Read the Gumdale guideHawthorne faces New Farm across the Brisbane River, about 3 km from the city centre in a straight line (the drive is a lot longer). For decades it…
Read the Hawthorne guideAshgrove is about 5 km north-west of the city, along Waterworks Road. It's known for its schools and its 'Ashgrovian' houses, a 1920s and 1930s take on the…
Read the Ashgrove guideAuchenflower sits between Milton Road and the Brisbane River, about 3.5 km west of the CBD. It has its own train station, the Wesley Hospital and a stretch…
Read the Auchenflower guideBardon climbs into the foothills of Mount Coot-tha, about 6 km west of the city. It's a leafy family suburb: 81.2% of homes are houses and nearly half…
Read the Bardon guideBrookfield is a rural residential suburb about 13 km west of the city, with D'Aguilar National Park to the north and Moggill Creek along its eastern edge. It's…
Read the Brookfield guideChelmer sits on a bend of the Brisbane River, about 10 km by road from the city. It's almost entirely houses (94.5% in the 2021 Census) and 61.3%…
Read the Chelmer guideFig Tree Pocket sits inside a deep bend of the Brisbane River, with water on three sides. It's about 9 km from the city in a straight line…
Read the Fig Tree Pocket guideGraceville is a riverside family suburb about 8 km south-west of the city, built around its railway station. It's mostly houses (88.4%) and half of homes have four…
Read the Graceville guideIndooroopilly grew up as a transport node and it still is one. It has a train station, a bus interchange and Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, which opened in 1970…
Read the Indooroopilly guidePullenvale is where Brisbane turns into acreage. Most allotments here are measured in hectares rather than square metres, spread across hills and ridges about 14 km south-west of…
Read the Pullenvale guideSt Lucia sits beside the Brisbane River about 4 km south-west of the CBD, with the University of Queensland at its eastern end. The university shapes almost everything…
Read the St Lucia guideMore suburbs are being added. If the one you're looking at isn't here yet, we're happy to talk it through.
Lenders look at your income, expenses, debts and deposit. Getting pre-approval before you start inspecting gives you a working budget and shows sellers you're ready to buy.
Unit size, building type, heritage and character controls and flood overlays can all affect which lenders will lend and how much. Brisbane City Council's City Plan and flood awareness mapping are good places to start.
On top of your deposit, allow for transfer duty, conveyancing, building and pest inspections, lenders mortgage insurance if you're borrowing more than 80% of the value and moving costs. First home buyers in Queensland may be eligible for transfer duty concessions or grants, depending on the property and the price.
Think about the commute, schools and catchments, the mix of houses and units and how long you plan to stay. Our suburb guides cover these for each area.
Talk it through with a Brisbane broker before you sign a contract. We can check the property you're looking at against lender policy.
General information only. This page provides general information and doesn't take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider whether it's appropriate for you and seek advice before making a decision.
Time Home Loans Pty Ltd ACN 161 695 012, Credit Representative 529395 is authorised under Australian Credit Licence 384324.
