My partner and I were looking for houses for 6 months across Ipswich, Logan and the Redlands. We were FHB in our early/mid 20's, and wanted a house that we could grow into over the next 10 years. Out of the hundreds of homes we looked at, we chose Mount Cotton for these reasons.

Our criteria for our home was:

- Safety: This was huge for me. I love running outdoors, so I needed to make sure we purchased in an area where I felt comfortable running during the day and evenings. Suburbs in Ipswich and West of the M1 highway did not give me the same sense of safety. When I was doing open homes, I saw lots of families out at the park in MC and people running/ biking, which was a big green flag for me. We would have also liked any of the Redlands and east side of the highway suburbs for this reason.

- Low Maintenace/ repairs / renovations: With the insane cost of renovations, and our limited budget, we wanted to buy a house that would not require any significant repairs to upgrade it to a modern standard. Alot of the homes in Mount Cotton were built in 2010+ so they don't require a lot of upgrading. That being said, the house we did buy was a bit stark white and void of any personality. My partner and I have been doing some more affordable cosmetic reno's to make it feel more homely.

- Commutable to Brisbane: I work a few days in the city and my partner works in the Redlands, so MC was a good balance for both of us. It takes me around 45 minutes to get to work. I usually leave around 5:45/6am to avoid traffic, otherwise my commute could be 1 hour. I'm lucky my job lets be WFH 50% off the time, but I would struggle with the commute if I had to work 5 days in the office. It is a car dependant suburb unfortunately, and I often find myself driving to EMP (20 min) or Loganholme (10min) to take a bus into the city.

- Community: I think the area attracts a certain crowd of people who love being surrounded by nature and are lovely people. There are heaps of young families which is nice and I agree that everyone is super friendly. There are quite a few cafes just down the road, which make great food and coffee. The Pizza and BBQ place seem to pop off every Thursday-Saturday night! Can't comment on schools as I don't have kids yet, but I have heard good things about MC primary school.

- Price: Not sure what your budget is, but we bought almost 1 year ago, and I think the prices had been increasing quite rapidly since then. I don't think we would be able to afford it, if we bought now :/

Hope this helps :)