A stronger housing market and improving job prospects has helped net migration levels to Queensland overtake Victoria.According to a report from real estate group CBRE. Victoria was Australia’s most popular state to move to from 2013 to 2017.

The trend was supported by the state’s strong economy and buoyant jobs market, with an average of 14,000 people per annum making the change. But population growth eased in FY2018, with falls in both net interstate and overseas migration figures.

Deloitte Access Economics says that over the next five years the Queensland economy is expected to grow 3.6%, outpacing the 3% growth predicted in NSW and Victoria.

In Sydney and Melbourne, people are being turned off by the spike in property prices over the five years to 2018. CBRE associate director Craig Godber says the housing market will continue to support migration to Queensland. “It has only been since the price differential between Sydney and Brisbane approached its widest point in early 2017 that a clear upward trend in net interstate migration to Queensland emerged,” says Godber.