Brisbane's real estate industry has welcomed news of the Queens Wharf redevelopment, believing more tourists and investors will flock to Brisbane instead of the Gold Coast, Melbourne or Sydney.

Andrew Coronis, managing director at Coronis Group, said he was delighted Echo Entertainment won the bid to build the new casino complex for multiple reasons and compared the development to that of Brisbane's South Bank in the late 1980s. "Their proposal to build a worldwide iconic facility will transform and activate the Brisbane CBD and permanently put the city on the map, just like EXPO 88 did," said Coronis. "Not only will the new development connect the city and South Bank to create a holistic premier destination, it will also improve the liveability and desirability of the area. The combination of three new residential towers and a retail precinct in the current Heritage-listed Treasury Casino will create a new fashionable hub which will attract tourists and investors to Brisbane, instead of the Gold Coast, Melbourne or Sydney."

In terms of what this will do for the real estate market, Coronis said it will provide a huge boost of stock for agencies to sell and then also the flow on effect from investors wishing to lease their properties. "I think it will also drastically improve the reputation of Brisbane and help attract more investment from southern and international buyers, particularly from the Asian market," he said.

Brett Andreassen, a Property Consultant at Doug Disher Real Estate and the winner of the REIQ Residential Salesperson of the Year 2015 award, said the recent win by the Echo Entertainment Group is fantastic for both the CBD real estate market and Brisbane in general. "With a well needed increase in both entertainment and hotels in the CBD as well as the revitalisation of the dated Treasury Casino into a shopping precinct similar to the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, the real estate market looks positive for the area," said Andreassen. "The increase in jobs for the economy as well as the tourism increase from many Asian countries attracted to Brisbane will have a flow on to the rest of the economy." 

Master Builders executive director Grant Galvin said the project would inject a welcome boost to the commercial construction and building industry in Brisbane and help transform the city. "This is our chance to show the rest of the world the type of top-class quality facilities we are capable of crafting in Brisbane," said Galvin. "We expect that the affects will also reverberate into the regions as thousands of jobs are set to be created during the construction phase."

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