Written by Jack Freestone, Buyers Collective
Until April 2025, a family arriving in Brisbane on a work visa could buy one established home to live in. That pathway is gone.
Temporary residents are treated as foreign persons, and the ban on foreign purchases of established dwellings now runs to 30 June 2029. If you are relocating on a 482, a 186 that has not yet been granted, or any other temporary visa, buying an established family home is not available to you for now.
That is a hard message to receive when you are already dealing with a move, a new role and children changing schools. But it is far better to know it in month one than in month six, and it makes the first decision very clear. You are renting, and where you rent matters more than it normally would.
Why Indooroopilly works for relocating families
Indooroopilly sits about seven kilometres west of the CBD and has become the default landing point for a lot of international families, for reasons that are practical rather than fashionable.
The schooling density is the main one. Indooroopilly State School and Indooroopilly State High School are both in the suburb, St Peters Lutheran College is here, and Brisbane Boys' College is a short run away in Toowong. The University of Queensland at St Lucia is one suburb over, which matters for academic and research households arriving on work visas.
Beyond that, Indooroopilly Shopping Centre covers most of what a household needs without a trip into the city, the Ipswich train line runs through the suburb, and the Western Freeway gives you a straightforward run in either direction.