2032 Brisbane Olympics

On Feb 17th, 2023, the Australian federal government and Queensland state government announced that they would spend a combined $4.9Bn on infrastructure before the city hosts the 2032 Summer Olympics. The federal government will provide $1.7Bn to construct the proposed 17,000-seat Brisbane Arena, while the state will add$1.9Bn to renovate the Gabba Cricket Ground. The remaining $1.3Bn will be used to build new venues or upgrade existing ones.

Airbnb 2019 data (sourced from Airbnb and STR Global) indicates that there are nearly 18,000 Airbnb listings in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, many of which could be utilised for spectators. The IOC has recently signed Airbnb as a major sponsor, announcing that the partnership would give "community residents the opportunity to earn extra income by providing accommodation and local experiences to visiting fans, athletes and other members of the Olympic Movement".

The 2032 Brisbane Olympics is expected to bring substantial economic benefits to Australia, including the creation of approximately 130,000 direct jobs and numerous indirect jobs, with over 10,000 induced by tourism alone during the Games year. Tourism opportunities are projected to increase international visitor expenditure in Queensland by $20.2 billion by 2036, with more than half of this spending anticipated to benefit regional areas. Additionally, the Games could boost export revenues in Queensland by 0.2% to 0.4%, potentially resulting in an additional $4.3 billion to $8.6 billion in investment. The event will also highlight emerging competitive advantage sectors in Southeast Queensland, such as precision healthcare, advanced agriculture, and data-driven urban management, while providing significant supply chain opportunities for local businesses, particularly SMEs.

In Barcelona, where the Games were hosted in 1992, property values increased by 130% in the five years leading up to the Olympics. London, which hosted the Olympics in 2012, saw more minor but noteworthy growth. Housing prices increased by 26% when people learned it would be the destination for the upcoming event. Prices even rose in less desirable areas, and the increases continued once the Games ended. CoreLogic Research Director Tim Lawless has also pointed out that the Queensland capital could be experiencing a similar surge in dwelling values. In the lead-up to2000, Sydney dwelling values skyrocketed by a staggering 60%, which is almost twice as much as the benchmark region of combined capital cities. With regards to the current state of the Brisbane property market, low vacancy rates have lead to a fast-tracking in home buying across Brisbane for beginners and seasoned property investors alike. In a balanced market, a vacancy rate of around 3% is typical. With current vacancy rates at around 1%, Brisbane is in a landlord’s market. This has resulted in rising rental yield, particularly for inner-city apartments and student accommodation properties. According to research by KPMG, the event is expected to generate around 91,600 full-time jobs in Queensland alone, and an astounding 122,900 on a national scale. The event is expected to bring in a staggering $8.1Bn in funding, including a $4.6Bn boost to tourism and trade, and an impressive $3.5Bn in social improvements. The demand for homes and real estate investments rises when all these elements come together. It's a great opportunity for investors to enter the market because this might result in higher home prices and better rental yields. Experts such as Westpac Business Bank Chief Economist, Besa Deda are predicting that the event could inject more than $17Bn into the city, resulting in a surge of infrastructure spending, job creation, and business opportunities.

PRD chief economist (Dr. Diaswati Maridiasmo) says Brisbane 2032 Olympics could drive up housing unaffordability imparts of Brisbane. She says suburbs that hosted the Olympics had historically become "investor playgrounds" for overseas buyers New PRD research shows there have historically been sharp increases in house prices near Olympic venues, particularly in a 5 to 10-kilometre radius of stadiums and venues. "If we're predicting those Olympic suburbs are going to go up in price, then their market is definitely not a first homebuyer market. It's more of an investor market," she said. "You're looking at that private investor, someone who wants to go into second home ownership or an investor who wants to expand their portfolio."

Dr. Mardiasmo said some suburbs could increase by upwards of 20%.

"A key question is whether or not the Olympics will make Brisbane, from a purchasing power perspective, as unaffordable as Sydney. "Dr. Mardiasmo said more and more Brisbanites were being priced out of home ownership in their suburbs. "We are finding more renters coming into the market because they can't afford to buy a home. "We're seeing less and less first homebuyers coming into the market and committing to a higher amount of debt."

The Olympic Village was built in Heidelberg West as accommodation for the 1956 Olympic Games. Nearly 60 years after Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games, those living in the former athletes village still suffer the effects of a rushed development and public housing policies of the time. The suburb struggles with some of the nation's highest levels of crime and poverty. The athletes blocks were never built for the long term and the swampy nature of the area has made them prone to cracking and mould. After the Games, the athletes were replaced in the houses by the urban working class, seeking to escape from overcrowded accommodation in what are now the boutique inner-city suburbs of Fitzroy and Carlton. The community's generational disadvantage was exacerbated in the 1970s by the old housing stock, and West Heidelberg was designated as a "district of special need" in the Henderson inquiry into poverty conducted in 1975.By the 1990s, however, successive governments viewed the provision of housing as a last resort. According to social work academic Deborah Warr, who has studied the area, housing was no longer a 'public right' and was only available as a safety net provision in response to 'social ills', as neoliberalism replaced the postwar social democratic consensus. The old working class with jobs in factories has long since moved out and today many of the houses are occupied by people experiencing complex problems including family breakdown, long-term unemployment, mental illness, disability and drug and alcohol abuse. Constructed under the seemingly humanitarian pretext of providing housing for individuals, the Olympic Village's long-term effects and shifting notions of the social role of government have resulted in the concentration of disadvantage.

Building and modernising sporting facilities is one legacy that all host cities must deal with because the Olympic Games are primarily a demonstration of athletic prowess. Over time, host cities' experiences with their athletic facilities have changed; some have been left with well-utilized spaces after events, while others may have been left with facilities that are more of a burden than a legacy. Many observers think that the Sydney Olympic Park (SOP) site, which served as the primary location for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, has experienced this. Since hosting the 2000 Olympic Games, SOP has remained fairly underutilised except for the odd major sporting event (e.g. Rugby World Cup in 2003) and the annual Sydney Royal Easter Show. A repeated criticism relating to the SOP site is that planning for the post games usage of the site was inadequate and that any plans now in place were too slow in being implemented to revitalise the site. But however, this has not been the case for certain suburbs. The suburb of Newington, which housed the athlete’s village, has become a popular enclave. With that popularity has come a surge in prices. The median price of a house in Newington was $410,000 in 2000 but it has since grown to $1.34m, according to realestate.com.au data. The athlete’s village was considered one of the most ambitious Olympic construction projects attempted at the time and certain scholars believed that it was well ahead of its time. The houses, townhouses and units built by the consortium for the games were sold as private homes after the Paralympics. There were also module homes that were dismantled and sold off to private buyers – many of which are now holiday homes in locations scattered up and down the NSW coast.

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Source - The Age, ABC, PRD, Ironfish, Queensland Government, AirBnB, STR Global and news.com.au.