Brisbane Bayside Property: The 10-Year Story Nobody Told You — Until Now
Ten years ago, nobody was fighting over Brisbane bayside. I know, because I was watching.
Back in 2015–2016, you could buy a house in Wynnum for $440,000–$550,000. Manly was considered "too far from the city." Alexandra Hills was an afterthought. Birkdale barely registered on most buyers' radars. The narrative around the bayside was simple and largely unchallenged — it was where you ended up, not where you chose to go.
That narrative was wrong. And the people who recognised it early were quietly building wealth while everyone else was chasing the inner-city dream.
We Didn't Just See It Coming — We Went Through Hotel Quarantine to Get Here
As the COVID borders were closing for the first time, my sister Jade, our partners, and I made a decision. We were moving to Brisbane's bayside — and a pandemic wasn't going to stop us. We went through hotel quarantine to get here. Not because we had to. Because we'd committed and we weren't backing down.
We could see what most people couldn't yet. Moreton Bay at sunrise. Streets you could actually walk. A community that still felt like one. Thirty minutes to the CBD. Waterfront living that didn't carry a $3 million price tag. Four of us sat in quarantine knowing exactly what was waiting on the other side of those two weeks.
That decision — and that conviction — is the foundation of everything we do at Ideal Buyers Agency today.
The Five-Year Explosion: What the Numbers Actually Say
The bayside didn't just grow. It transformed.
Wynnum's median house price climbed 91.4% over five years, hitting $1.22 million. Manly — which became Brisbane's single best performing suburb — doubled in value over the same window, recording growth of 101.5%. The people who had called it "too far out" were watching properties they'd passed on trade at twice the price.
This wasn't luck. It wasn't a COVID anomaly that corrected itself. It was the market finally catching up to what the bayside had always been — one of the most liveable, well-located, lifestyle-rich corridors in South East Queensland, chronically undervalued for years simply because it didn't have the postcode prestige of the inner west or riverside suburbs.
Where Does the Bayside Stand in 2026?
The corridor has repriced. And in my view, permanently.
Wynnum's median house price sits at $1.15 million. Manly — still one of the most tightly held markets in all of Brisbane — carries a median of $1,592,000. Alexandra Hills is reporting medians of $900,000 with 11.1% annual growth and 4% rental yields. Capalaba is sitting at $932,500 with 10% growth across the board. Manly West is seeing house price growth running 6.6% above Brisbane's city-wide average, with rental yields tracking 10.5% above the Brisbane benchmark.
The bayside is no longer a secret. It is now one of the most competitive sub-markets in South East Queensland — characterised by high owner-occupier rates, tightly held stock, low days on market, and buyer competition that regularly pushes prices above asking.
The Next Decade: Why the Best Is Still Ahead
If you think the bayside story is over, you're not looking at the right data.
The Redlands corridor sits directly in the orbit of Brisbane's 2032 Olympic infrastructure investment. The Redland Whitewater Centre is already confirmed. Transport upgrades are underway. A decade of government spending is flowing through this region. And history tells us clearly — the largest property uplift from an Olympic Games happens in the years before the event, not during it. The window isn't 2032. It's now through 2030.
Layer on top of that a Brisbane rental vacancy rate sitting at 0.9% — among the tightest in the country — and ANZ's forecast of 9.5% price growth for Brisbane in 2026 alone, and the picture becomes very clear.
The bayside isn't catching up to Brisbane anymore. Brisbane is catching up to the bayside.
What the Data Doesn't Tell You — But I Can
Numbers tell part of the story. The rest of it lives on the ground.
I've been here for nearly six years. I chose this corridor before it was the obvious choice, and I've watched every cycle, every shift, and every pocket move since. I know which streets flood and which ones the council won't approve subdivisions on. I know which properties have been passed in twice and exactly why. I know which agents are pricing below market and which ones are fishing — and I know the difference between a property worth fighting for and one that's not.
Jade is based in Wynnum. I'm in Manly West. The bayside is our heartland — but Ideal Buyers Agency operates across all of Brisbane and South East Queensland. Whether our clients are buying in the bayside corridor, the inner north, the south side, or anywhere across the broader SEQ market, we bring the same depth of research, the same negotiation approach, and the same embedded market knowledge to every single brief.
We just happen to live in the best part.
This is not just our market professionally. It is our home. And we went through hotel quarantine to get here.
That is the difference between buying in Brisbane and buying it well.
Why Ideal Buyers Agency Is the Only Call to Make
At Ideal Buyers Agency, the bayside and inner south-east corridor is where we live and where our roots run deepest — but our expertise covers all of Brisbane and broader South East Queensland. Home buyers, investors, and first home buyers across the entire region trust us to find, assess, negotiate, and secure the right property at the right price.
Our results reflect that focus. More than 73 five-star Google reviews. A 21-day average to secure our clients' properties. Flat-fee, fully transparent pricing published on our website before you ever pick up the phone — because we believe you deserve to know exactly what you're paying before the conversation starts.
If you are buying anywhere across Brisbane or South East Queensland in 2026 — and especially if the bayside is calling you — there is one agency that knows this market from the inside out.
Ideal Buyers Agency. Brisbane · Bayside · Inner South-East · South East Queensland.
Get in touch today and let's talk about what this market actually looks like right now — not what the portals are telling you.
