July Brisbane Property Market Update

July has finally delivered some price growth in Brisbane property values according to the latest monthly data released by Corelogic on August 1.  We suggested in our last monthly update that the data is often retrospective to what we are seeing “on the ground.”  Since the Federal election in May, and also the stimulus from decreased interest rates and the loosening of credit markets, we have seen buyers out in force and a lot more people have entered the market looking to secure a property in Brisbane.

The main issue in Brisbane, that we have at the moment in relation to property, is that there are not enough new properties being listed.  In fact, listing volumes are down 21.5% in Brisbane compared to this time last year (see below).

Of course, we know when there is limited supply (ie: fewer quality properties for sale) and increased demand (ie: more buyers looking for property), this puts upward pressure on prices. 

So, we now have a confirmed month on month change in overall dwelling values in Brisbane from June to July 2019 of 0.2%. 

Source:  Corelogic

This is broken down further to reflect a 0.3% change in house values and a 0.1% change in unit values, so single homes are definitely leading the way.  This is very positive news for Brisbane.

Reports from NAB residential property index have demonstrated that Queensland is the only State within Australia that has demonstrated a shift from negative to positive sentiment between the first and second quarters of 2019, which is more good news for our region.

Source: NAB Residential Property Survey – Q2 2019

And if you missed the predictions, BIS Oxford Economics have recently predicted that Brisbane house prices will increase by 20% over the next 3 years, leading the projected growth for all capital cities across Australia.  Now might just be the perfect time to ensure you are positioned to benefit from this.

Furthermore, asking rents in Brisbane have demonstrated a further increase this month, which provides confidence for investors looking to maximise their investment yields.  This is in contrast to Sydney and Melbourne markets where the monthly change in rent was negative.

Source: SQM Research

The Brisbane market is in favour of landlords with residential vacancy rates well below 2% in many pockets and trending downward.  This is on the back of limited new supply of housing coming to the market with building approvals down in the order of -21% compared with 12 months ago.

So overall Brisbane’s property market looks bright.  Whilst we did not see the losses that Sydney and Melbourne have experienced over the last couple of years, our market certainly slowed down because of the negative sentiment that filtered through nation-wide.  But the data now shows a small turn around and the projections look bright.  With another possible rate cute before the end of the year, it is possible that even more optimism may creep in over the coming months.