Population growth in Queensland is expanding at a rate twice as fast as the national average, creating a housing problem.
The Sunshine State had an increase of 94,300 residents in the year ending in March, mostly due to interstate migration as Australia’s border just opened to foreign visitors in December.
This was nearly as many as the two most populous states in Australia put together, with Victoria gaining 46,500 new residents and NSW registering 49,500.
On Wednesday, new statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed Queensland’s annual population growth rate of 1.8% was twice as fast as the national average of 0.9%.
Queensland saw the strongest yearly population increase since September 2013.
Despite having 20% of Australia’s 25.9 million residents, Queensland was responsible for 39% of the population increase.
A significant portion of Australia’s 239,800 population growth through net yearly immigration and births less deaths was made up by the 94,300 persons who relocated to Queensland or were born there.
The ABS ascribed Queensland’s population gain to the border being reopened on December 15 of last year, which was not far from the 110,000 net annual foreign immigration threshold.
Western Australia’s population increased by 1.1 percent, or 29,000 people, making it the state with the second-fastest growth.
The only other state with population growth over the national average was Queensland, with New South Wales seeing growth at a rate of 0.6% compared to Victoria’s 0.7%.
13,800 more inhabitants, or 0.8%, were added to South Australia.
3,100 new people moved to Tasmania, representing a 0.5% growth rate.
The Northern Territory saw the poorest growth level of 0.3% as 900 people migrated there, while the Australian Capital Territory experienced an increase of 2,700 people for a growth rate of 0.6%.
A housing summit was called last week by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk due to the state’s low vacancy rates.
According to statistics from SQM Research, Brisbane’s August vacancy rate of 0.7% was roughly half the 1.3% level of August 2021.
The vacancy rate in Sydney has similarly decreased by half, from 2.6% to 1.3%, while the vacancy rate in Melbourne has decreased from 3.5% to 1.4%.
According to CoreLogic statistics, Brisbane’s median home price increased by 31.4% to $782,967 last year.
Despite declines in July and August as a consequence of recent interest rate increases, mid-point home prices have climbed by 5.9% since January to $864,149, making it one of Australia’s best capital city markets.
In that period, the midpoint value of a property in Sydney declined by 7.3% to $1.3 million, while the midpoint value in Melbourne fell by 5.1% to $948,879 in 2022.
Based on 320,000 foreign arrivals and 210,400 foreign departures, the ABS calculated that Australia’s net annual immigration rate was 109,600.
A natural gain of 130,200 people resulted from births minus deaths.
With the year ending in March, which includes the December 15 reopening of the border to foreigners for the first time since March 2020, net overseas immigration increased by 183%.
The number of departures from abroad went up 1.5%.
In September, the Reserve Bank of Australia increased interest rates for a fifth consecutive month, bringing them to a seven-year high of 2.35 percent.
The meeting’s minutes, which were made public on Tuesday, stated that foreign visitors would boost economic activity.
“Members emphasised that rising numbers of international visitors and students, which are classified as services exports, would enhance local activity,” it said.
With unemployment at only 3.5% in August, CommSec Chief Economist Craig James predicted that a larger labour pool from faster population growth will prevent salaries from rising too quickly.
According to him, “the increase in population growth will ease labour market constraints and contribute to sustain consumption.”
Queenslander and Treasurer Jim Chalmers suggested that the October budget will emphasise on the weak wage growth, which increased by just 2.6% in the year to June, or less than half the inflation rate of 6.1%.