No doubt you've seen news
and footage of Brisbane's 2022 floods by now.
But once we move on to the next news story
and everybody forgets about the thing
what does it actually mean for Brisbane?
How do the floods
impact Brisbane immediately, in the medium, and long term?
Things will take some time to get back to normal
but are there some things that will never be the same?
In this video I'll look at the immediate impact.
There's a lot of things
that are really useful
to know about, especially things
that you usually have to pay for that are temporarily free.
But I'll also look at the anticipated timelines
for repairs to certain infrastructure and services,
as well as the really long term impact on the city,
particularly things like property prices
and how lessons learned may change
the face of the city into the future.
In terms of immediate impact of the floods.
The most obvious thing is the 40 to 70,000 properties
that have sustained flood damage.
If you've been a victim to this, you can claim a lump sum
payment from the federal government
of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child under 16.
All the details are in the video description.
Brisbane City Council
have a few initiatives
to help reduce the impact of the floods in the short term,
as public transport services have been affected.
They've made metered parking free until the end of March.
But don't forget that while it's free,
you still have to stick to the time limits,
as some people have been fined for exceeding those times.
Also, issuing of council rates
has been postponed to late April, early May around then.
And homeowners who have been affected
by the floods
will receive a $250 rebate on their next rights bill.
The council also set up community immunization clinics,
so people involved in flood
cleanup activities can receive free tetanus vaccinations.
The final immediate impact is that with all this water
pooling around,
mosquito numbers are up and there's already been
a couple of fatal cases
of mosquito transmitted Japanese encephalitis.
It's often carried by water birds
and then transmitted to humans by the mosquitoes.
So keep yourself safe by using repellent and also wear
light-colored clothing when you're outdoors.
All right.
So let's look at some medium term impacts
as well as predicted timelines for how long
things are actually going to take to get back to normal.
On the 2nd of March, there were 38,807 insurance
claims made in South East Queensland for flood
related damage and around 70,000 expected in total.
Many homes are currently
unlivable, which means many owner occupiers
and renters are temporarily homeless.
All I can say
is that the prospects of finding a rental in Brisbane
in the short to medium term is not looking great as demand
outstrips supply by so much. Notable damage
includes damage to Citycat infrastructure.
After the 2011 floods, Brisbane City Council
put in flood-resilient ferry terminals
with a gangway that detaches from the mainland and swings
around in line with river flow
to avoid getting taken out by debris.
In this, their first real test,
most of the ferry terminals performed as had been hoped,
but the one at Regatta Point was seriously damaged by debris.
Eight City Cat and all four kitty
Cat ferries are off the river and being assessed for damage
and the Beenung Urrung Citycat sank when it was hit by a houseb
With all the repairs and inspections
as well as the need for a full survey of the river,
it's not expected that Brisbane's
ferry service will return for another three months or so.
And I guess I won't be doing that video that I'd planned
on Brisbane's bikeways
because the bikeways have suffered extensive damage
and some sections have been completely washed away.
People are actually suggesting it may be a number of years
before the bikeways
can actually be restored to the condition
that they were in before the flood.
So getting around Brisbane will be quite different.
post-Flood and repairs to roads, rail, bridges and other
infrastructure is now expected to reach $2.5 billion.
So what about the long term impacts?
Well, I guess
the one piece of good news is that the State
Treasurer of Queensland has promised
not to increase taxes to recoup money used for rebuilding.
So that's something
I'll be making a video on some ways to investigate
the potential impact of floods on any Brisbane property.
That video is coming out soon, so make sure you are subscribing
and that you've got
the notifications switched on so you don't miss that one.
But what about property prices
into the future in the long term,
especially the worst affected suburbs:
Rocklea, Deagon, Brighton, Windsor and The Gap,
as well as Brisbane overall?
There are
slightly differing opinions on this. After the 2011 floods,
property values dropped by an average of 6.1% over one year
but are generally returned to the 2011 level by March 2014.
Not all suburbs fared so well. Take Chelmer.
After the floods in 2011 property prices plunged
by almost 18% and it took over eight years to recover.
Rocklea prices dropped by 17.4%
but were back to pre-flood levels in less than four years.
Where opinion differs is what factors
will make the impact different this time around.
Some say there was
great momentum in the market leading up to the 2022 floods.
So things may bounce back more quickly
this time, especially
considering the upcoming 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
But others say one important difference is that in 2011
the last major flood was in 1974 almost 40 years prior
and the 2011 floods were seen as a one in 100 years event.
So this time... now it's going to rain on the lens.
Are you kidding me? Maybe I need to change location
So I think I got up to the part where I was saying that
people may be more hesitant to buy now because it's looking
like these floods are going to become more frequent events.
But overall in the long term, there is general consensus
that property values will continue to rise
despite a possible drop over the next year or so.
But interest in properties and property sales
after the flood this year actually indicate that
maybe the impact won't be all that strong at all.
Actually, there's been a lot of interest
in suburbs in Rocklea and other flood affected suburbs
where there's been multiple people inquiring
attending auctions.
The place where I started this is actually going
to auction tomorrow,
and from all accounts there's going to be quite
a lot of interested buyers
and some people say that Australia opening up is going
to be attracting more international buyers as well.
And real estate agents have said that this is already happening
So what about changes in the city of Brisbane
to prevent such widespread damage?
Should we get the kind of rains that we had this time?
Again, it seems inevitable that freak weather events
are becoming less freak and more common.
So what can we expect authorities to be doing
to mitigate the kind of damage we saw in 2011 and now in 2022?
Well it's not a straightforward thing and really deserves
an entire video to even start to explore.
So hit that subscribe button
and I promise
to get to that very big and quite contentious issue
really soon.
In the meantime, you can check out this video
which covers Brisbane's often freakish weather.
And I'll see you with more Brisbane content real soon.