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Property Markets around Australia have continued to perform well throughout December, and certainly Brisbane is one Capital City that has ended the 2019 year with positive annual growth. This growth has occurred mainly in the second half of the year, spurred on by lower mortgage rates, a relaxation in borrower serviceability assessments, improved housing affordability and renewed certainty around property taxation policies following the Federal election.  This Brisbane Property Market Update will explore these trends in detail.

December saw price growth across Greater Brisbane inch higher, up a further 0.7% across the month according to the most recent Corelogic data . This equates to 2.4% price growth across the final quarter of 2019, which supports what we have been reporting on the ground for a few months now.

Interestingly, the Corelogic data also showed that the greatest price growth in Brisbane has occurred in the middle of the market over the month. This segment increased +0.7%, compared with a 0.1% rise across the lower quartile and steady conditions across the upper quartile.

SQM Research confirmed that property listings decreased again in December, down -14.6% for the month and down -8.4% compared to 12 months earlier. Whilst there is certainly a seasonal fall in properties listed for sale at this time of the year because it is the start of the festive season and summer holiday period, listing volumes are still lower now than they were 12 months ago in Brisbane.

Buyers are still very active in the Brisbane property market. This was the case right up to Christmas. We attended an open home just 5 days before Christmas and there were 40 groups through the property, which went to multi-offer on the same day and resulted in a contract for the seller that afternoon. The Brisbane market is certainly proving to provide some good returns for sellers at the moment!

Further to this, the Herron Todd White Residential December 2019 Report detailed that over the last 12 months in Brisbane, demand for suburbs closest to the city centre was consistently better than for most of the fringe suburbs. It was reported that cashed up interstate migrants played a role in this, searching for high quality lifestyle – oriented homes. In addition to this, it was noted that desirable school zones continued to contribute to price growth potential with higher demand in locations with good school catchments translating to premium prices.  This is something we have previously highlighted as well.

According to SQM Research asking prices across Brisbane increased again in December, up +0.5% for houses for the month. This represents a total +2.8% positive 12-month change … correlating well with the Corelogic median price growth for our City across the same time period.

With Herron Todd White reporting that Brisbane is at the Start of its Recovery in the housing market and at the bottom of the market in the unit market, there are very good prospects for capital growth across our City in the near future. Brisbane currently presents with excellent indications of sustained, long-term capital gains, particularly in the detached housing market. We are looking forward to the months ahead and will continue to report trends and on-the-ground updated through our regular Brisbane Property Market Update blog series.  Watch this space for further details in the months ahead!