Hear from some people looking to buy their first home, and from some people working in real estate.


REAL ESTATE AGENT: As you can see the kitchen's been recently renovated...

MEGAN MAGILL: Like most young couples, David and Adele Shim dream of buying their own home.

REAL ESTATE AGENT: Are you familiar with the Holland Park Area?

DAVID AND ADELE SHIM: Yes

REAL ESTATE AGENT: Yeah it's a great place to live.

MEGAN MAGILL: They've got a budget of $350,000. But finding something within ten kilometres of the city centre is proving difficult

DAVID SHIM, POTENTIAL HOME BUYER: We found that there was a huge variety in price range in the market, so it was like $370 for this and then 370 for this.

ADELE SHIM, POTENTIAL HOME BUYER: You know one house will be nicely renovated and the other will be this rundown dump and you don't know what the market value really is.

MEGAN MAGILL: They've been looking for months now and have found the process so confusing they're paying for professional help.

Buyer's Agent, Scott McGeever, is trying to locate their perfect place and will negotiate on their behalf.

SCOTT McGEEVER, BUYER'S AGENT: It's certainly becoming a lot more difficult or more difficult than it ever has been for a young married couple or first homebuyer.

MEGAN MAGILL: Mr McGeever says while the middle of the market has plateaued there are still enough potential buyers.

And real estate agents say the top and bottom of the market are still strong.

Earlier this year, a block of beachfront land sold on the Gold Coast for a record nine and a half million dollars, while developers are carving up cheaper blocks on Brisbane's outskirts.

Since the mid-eighties, 55,000 people a year have been moving to the state's southeast and that's expected to continue for the next two decades.

Late last year, the state government released a draft regional plan to manage the growth. Under the blueprint population growth would be encouraged to Brisbane's west with more high-density development in the inner city.

ASSOC.PROFESSOR JOHN MINNERY, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND: They have got this thing called the urban footprint where they've drawn a boundary around the main developed areas and said that it would be best to have development first within this urban footprint and I think that's the way that they're looking at stopping urban sprawl.

MEGAN MAGILL: For first homebuyers David and Adele Shim proximity to work far outweighs any savings from purchasing on the outskirts.

ADELE SHIM: We might get slightly better quality but it wouldn't make a huge difference as to whether we move a bit further out or whether we stay here.

MEGAN MAGILL: And this week's interest rate rise means, for those operating on the margins, the choices will only get tougher.