Brisbane is one of the top destinations for overseas migration in Australia. But finding a property and navigating the sales process in a different country can be overwhelming. Serena Jones remembers the exact feeling. Nine months into house hunting after moving from the UK, she and her husband felt stuck in a loop - every Tuesday night, every Thursday night, every Saturday inspecting properties that never quite worked out. “We felt stuck on Groundhog Day,” she says. “Like we were on a hamster wheel.”
Serena is now the founder and director of Locality Property Buyers in Brisbane, helping other newcomers navigate the very process that once left her so bewildered. We sat down with her to find out what genuinely surprises people buying their first property here - and why a bit of local knowledge goes such a long way.
Where's the price?
The first shock, Serena says, is how few properties list an asking price. If a home's going to auction, Queensland agents aren't actually allowed to give a guide – as it could influence the bidding – but even properties being sold outside of auction are often advertised without a price. For anyone used to seeing a number attached to a listing, that's disorienting. “Why don't they just tell us how much they want?” is a question she hears constantly.
Without a guide price, buyers are left to work out value themselves - and that isn’t always easy. Every home on a street can look completely different, sit on a different-sized block, and have been built in a different era with different finishes. There's often no identical houses to compare prices against, so working out the price can be a common source of frustration.
Why so many Auctions?
Auctions themselves can feel confronting too. In the UK, Serena explains, very few properties are sold by this method, and it’s often only ones that are distressed in some way – a deceased estate, a situation requiring a very quick or certain sale, or a property that’s expected to be difficult to sell in the conventional way, perhaps due to its poor condition. Here, auctions are a far more mainstream sales method, and for many that takes some getting used to.
Negotiating without knowing the other numbers
Negotiations feel different too. In Queensland, agents won't disclose the specifics of a competing offer - the Real Estate Institute of Queensland - best-practice guidelines advise agents against revealing numbers or conditions from another buyer. In some countries, Serena says, that kind of transparency is standard, and its absence here can feel unsettling at first. Her advice: trust that everyone's playing by the same rules, even if they're not the rules you are used to.
The contract that moves faster than you'd expect
If pricing catches people off guard, the speed of the contracts catches them off guard even more. In Queensland, as soon as your offer's verbally accepted, you're expected to sign a legally binding contract, and in fact and you may even be asked to sign the formal contract document for your offer to be presented to the seller. Compare that to the UK, where nothing's binding until close to settlement, sometimes three or four months down the track, and it’s easy to see how unnerving that can feel for many people.
“That old way seems very uncertain now,” Serena admits, “as you’ve no real certainty that a property will be yours until many weeks after agreeing to buy, but it's what people are used to.” The lesson for newcomers: engage a solicitor or conveyancer before you sign, not after. Once contracts have been signed, walking away isn't always simple, and can come with major financial penalties.
Stamp duty and the four-week sprint
Then there's stamp duty – in some countries no such transfer tax exists, while in others it's traditionally the seller who pays it, or both parties pay a portion each. In Queensland, transfer duty is a cost to the buyer, and depending on the purchase price it can add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of the purchase, so budgeting for it early makes all the difference.
And just when you think you've cleared every hurdle, settlement arrives faster than anyone expects: typically thirty days from signing to keys in hand. For newcomers hoping to spend only a month or two in temporary accommodation, that's welcome news. But if you're not braced for it, four weeks to pack up an entire life - again - and organise removalists can feel like a genuine scramble.
More than a transaction
What comes through most in talking with Serena isn't the mechanics of buying - it's what buying means to someone arriving from overseas. “It's about stability,” she says. “It's about belonging. It's about certainty. A real sense of being able to put down roots and be part of something.”
She knows that feeling first-hand. Until she and her husband settled into their own home, she says, they felt as though the life they'd moved to Brisbane for hadn’t quite begun. Once they had a place of their own, that changed. Everything else - new friendships, new routines, the whole adventure - could start in earnest.
For anyone preparing to buy their first home here, Serena's advice is simple: expect the process to be different from what you're used to. Learn how it works before you start looking, ask questions and seek out good information early. Knowing what to expect can remove much of the uncertainty – and make finding your new home an exciting, not daunting, experience.
Here to help
At Penrose Real Estate, we've combined experience of over sixty-plus years helping people through exactly this kind of transition - whether you're moving across the world or just across town.
Call Christina on 0418 737 327 or Grant on 0418 747 997 to get started.
If you’re looking to invest in Brisbane, continue reading to discover the best suburbs for first-time homebuyers.
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We would like to thank Serena for taking the time to chat with us and share your insights about purchasing a property in Australia. If you would like to chat to Serena about her experience, you can find her at www.localitypropertybuyers.com.au.