Apartment developers from Sydney and Melbourne are heading to Qld following buyers priced out of the southern cities to Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Half a dozen developers have purchased more than $100 million worth of development sites in the last few months with close to $1 billion worth of apartments planned.

Four teams comprising public and heritage building design experts will compete for the brief to redesign the 1856-built State Library of Victoria by architect Joseph Reed. Major Projects Australia first called for expressions of interest for the redevelopment back in November 2015 and has now revealed its favoured bidders for the $83 million project.

McCarthy said continued volatility in China could present an opportunity for first-home buyers in Australia. "I would first of all absolutely agree investment from people in China is one of the drivers in a hot property market, particularly in Australia's capital cities," McCarthy said. "However moves from regularity authorities to check unlawful investment in property has certainly checked the momentum of property investment from China and that's turned up in house price indexing, which has shown a slight cooling."