Photo courtesy REIQ.
It wasn't that long ago that Queensland - while begrudgingly embraced for its bevy of natural attractions - was ridiculed by some southerners for being uncouth, uncultured and, let's face it, a little bit slow.
Fast forward a few years and recent figures show many of our southern neighbours actually want to live here.
Recent figures released by the Queensland Government's Office of Economic and Statistical Research found that interstate migration has added more than 620,000 people to Queensland's population in the past two decades.
"Over the 20 year period more than 1.5 million people moved from NSW and Victoria to Queensland while around one million moved the other way resulting in a net gain of 500,000 people," Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser says.
He says the latest figures also dispelled the common myth that retirees were the ones migrating from interstate in pursuit of a better lifestyle.
"The Census overwhelmingly showed that interstate migrants are generally younger than the incumbent population," he says. "According to the latest Census data, just 5% of interstate migrants aged 65 or over moved to Queensland.
Mithra Pattison and Karl Fentiman are just two of the more than 50,000 people who have migrated to Queensland from New South Wales over the past five years.
For Mr Pattison, a 32-year-old senior programmer in the games development industry, the decision to head north was originally spurred by job opportunity.
"The computer games industry is significantly larger in Brisbane than in Sydney," he says. "I had other job offers in Sydney, but I came up to Brisbane for an interview and quite liked it. On the CityCat someone struck up a conversation with me, which sadly just doesn't happen in Sydney."
There's just a better work/life balance."I like the weather; the lifestyle; I got involved in a sporting club. There's just a better work/life balance. I do miss my family and friends sometimes, but a lot of my friends have actually moved up here now. I certainly don't miss the city itself," he says.
Together with a couple of friends, Mr Pattison has rented a waterfront home in Norman Park for the past 12 months. He admits he could never have afforded a similar property in Sydney. "It's very unlikely that we would have got anything like this for this sort of money," he says.
After investing in a duplex in Sydney a few years ago, Mr Pattison is currently in the process of selling up so he can buy his own place in Brisbane.
"I don't think I'll go back there to live. Brisbane has everything I need and has a much more laidback lifestyle," he says. "I'm looking to buy a property here at the moment and have seen quite a few in my price range that are reasonably close to the city. In Sydney, I would probably have had to buy something further from the city with a longer commute time."
While Mr Fentiman, 31, also headed up to Brisbane from Sydney to work in the games development industry, he is originally from the UK and now a permanent resident.
"I originally was in Sydney, but got made redundant. Quite a few people had shifted up to Brisbane, so I came up here for the weekend and got offered two jobs as well as a relocation package," he says.
"Sydney just felt like a big city. A big city is a big city no matter where you are. There is definitely a different atmosphere between Brisbane and Sydney," he says. "I like it here because it doesn't take long to get out of the city, head down to the Coast or something. People complain about the traffic here but in the UK you can be stuck in a traffic jam for two and a half hours; here you're lucky if it's 25 minutes."
Together with his girlfriend, Mr Fentiman recently signed a lease on an apartment in Kelvin Grove. And even with all the media about historically low rental vacancy rates and queues of people at open homes, he says the experience was surprisingly easy.
"We were probably lucky because we got the second property we viewed. The property manager was very open and friendly, which I don't think you get in Sydney either," he says.
"I don't anticipate that I'll shift back to Sydney. When I first got there, the property prices were going crazy. While it's not like that here, I'll probably invest in something a little out of the city so it's a bit more affordable."
Dr Martin Bell, the head of the University of Queensland's School of Geography, Planning and Architecture, says that while young professionals tended to be highly mobile creatures, the current influx of this demographic into the State was being driven by the strength of the Queensland economy.
"We are tending to attract and retain far more young people than we used to, but this is driven by our buoyant economy, the skills shortage and the resources boom. There is demand for a high level of skills in the Queensland economy," he says.
"Migration into Queensland has never been driven by retirees. That's a myth. And the number of retirees coming here is now smaller than ever."
