Brisbane property prices rising evenly at all levels from the most expensive to the most affordable

The rising property tide is lifting prices evenly in Brisbane, latest industry data shows – a far cry from very unequal growth being seen in other Australian capitals.

Brisbane is running third (1.9 per cent) behind Melbourne (7.4 per cent) and Sydney (4.6 per cent) when it comes to capital gains over the September quarter, according to the CoreLogic RP Data Hedonic Home Value Index.

But unlike the southern capitals where gains over 12 months have been heavily skewed towards the most expensive properties, in Brisbane there was an almost equal percentage jump across the board.

Nationally, the most expensive dwellings (top quartile based on value) jumped 12.3 per cent in the 12 month period, while the most affordable quarter of the market saw 8.5 per cent growth, according to CoreLogic RP Data research head Tim Lawless.

“This trend holds true across Sydney and Melbourne, however in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth it is actually the most affordable end of the housing market that has recorded the best results.”  But, he said, Brisbane had a further peculiarity of even growth.

“Interestingly, there’s not a great deal of difference between the different segments (in Brisbane),” he said.

“What we’re seeing in Brisbane is quite broad based. There’s a 4.7 per cent rise in the bottom quartile which is the most affordable segment of the market, the broad middle 50 per cent is seeing a 4.6 per cent rise and most expensive is up 4.5 per cent over the year.”  Where there was a substantial difference in prices rises in Brisbane was between houses and units, Mr Lawless said.

“Houses are up 5 per cent over the past 12 months, whereas units are only 2.1 per cent,” he said. “That’s probably reflecting additional (unit) supply coming into the Brisbane market which is keeping a lid on that growth.”

He said even though the Brisbane market seemed to be underperforming compared to other capital city data, it was delivering a “very broad based level of sustainable growth”.

“All the other capital cities are showing quite a large difference between top and bottom,” he said.

“I think Brisbane has a lot of opportunities when you look at the growth cycle to date. We’re seeing anecdotal evidence of southern buyers heading there to buy more affordable and higher yield properties.”

Brisbane’s median dwelling price was $460,000 at the end of September (which includes a large swath of South East Queensland through to the Gold Coast).

Sydney was still the most expensive city, with a median dwelling price of $785,000, while Hobart was most affordable city ($303,500).

He said the Sydney market was slowing, with auction clearance rates slipping while the number of properties on the market was rising.

“Vendors are still enjoying strong selling conditions (in Sydney), but it looks like buyers are slowly regaining some leverage in what has been a very hot market.”

In the three months to September, Melbourne was the best performing capital city (7.4 per cent) but it also had the lowest rental yield (2.9 per cent for houses and 4.1 per cent for units). Sydney was also the lowest unit rental yield (4.1 per cent). Hobart was the weakest performer (-2.0 per cent), while the highest rental yields came out of Darwin (5.4 per cent houses and units at 5.8 per cent). (Article Sophie Foster Newscorp 1st October 2015)