Brisbane Real Estate Wrap Up for the 1st Quarter of 2019

In this market wrap we’re going to drill down into what we’ve seen in our local property market during the first quarter of 2019.

Focusing on Chelmer through to Oxley, the Centenary suburbs and Indooroopilly, west to Bellbowrie and Moggill, including Fig Tree Pocket and Chapel Hill.

We’re going to look at what’s happening in Melbourne and Sydney and contrast their market movements to our own, whilst looking forward to see what we can expect during the rest of 2019. Then, we get a little bit political with the proposed changes to negative gearing. So, if this sounds interesting to you, please continue reading and enjoy.

This market wrap is going to be a little different because like you, we’re seeing the various media outlets peddle all kinds of doom and gloom but we’re simply not seeing those outcomes on the ground.

The biggest struggle we have at the moment is finding homes to sell. Given all of this negative talk, we’re noticing sellers hold off and waiting for the market to improve. On the contrary, the stats are showing we’re still in a good market here in Brisbane.
As an office, during the first quarter of this year we’ve sold over 70 homes. That’s over one per day, every business day for the first 3 months of the year. Right now, buyers are buying, sellers are selling and prices are holding steady.

We’ve done our research and looked into why there’s currently so much negative talk surrounding the Brisbane property market. Evidently it seems to all relate back to Sydney and Melbourne.
Here in Australia, there is no overarching “Australian property market”, as the property market is dramatically different depending on the State, Territory, city or regional area that you’re in. Australia is therefore essentially a collection of many different housing markets.

So, what’s happening in Sydney and Melbourne that is having such an adverse effect up here on the reputation of Brisbane’s property market? Well, over the past 3 months Melbourne has seen a decrease of 4.1%, and they’re down a total of 9.6% since their peak back in November of 2017. Sydney similarly has experienced a down turn of 4.1% over the 3-month period but has declined a total of 13.2% since their peak in July 2017.

Contrastively, Brisbane have only seen a slight ease over the past 3 months of just 0.7%, meaning we’re only marginally below our peak in April 2018. Here, our economy is being reinforced by projects such Queen’s Wharf, TradeCoast, Cross River Rail, the second airport runway and several other major projects. More than that, the jobs growth from those projects hasn’t even been felt yet and won’t kick off for a few more years, giving us a positive outlook for a reinvigorated market into the future.

The only concern that we at Place Graceville have looking forward, without getting too political of course, is the proposed changes to negative gearing.

If this goes through, we will see investors leave the market, causing an instant reduction in demand and a consequential fall in prices. More than that, there will be less investors in the market which means fewer rental properties and overall stiffer competition between tenants, pushing up rents.

We all know that for most, the natural life cycle starts by living at home, then move into a share house, then moving into our own rental as we save for our first home in the hopes of hopping onto the property ladder. If rents go up, this will make it even harder for first home buyers to save for a deposit.

Australia has built the property market on private investors and the only way I can see these changes in negative gearing working is if Australia spends billions on public housing with a long-term view of moving away from the current status quo. There have been a ton of different reports all showing different stats, however one message remains consistent; if Labor goes through with the proposed changes, rents will go up and prices will fall.

All in all, the news is positive here in Brisbane, we still have a healthy level of affordability, interstate migration and a good balance of local and interstate investors. We are expecting 2019 to offer stability and for Brisbane to come out as Australia’s leading property market.

If we can help with anything property related, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of my hard working and dedicated team on 3379 4311