Inner-Brisbane unit sales up 15%

Signs of a strong spring selling season for the Brisbane unit market are emerging with its inner-city market recording a 15% bump up in preliminary sales and the median unit price holding steady at $395,000 over the June quarter. 

On an annualised basis, median apartment sale prices in the inner ring increased by 1.3% from $400,000 in June 2010 to $405,000 in June 2011, according to Real Estate Institute of Queensland data.

Across the greater Brisbane area, prices improved marginally 0.5% to a median of $375,000 over the June quarter. On annualised basis the median sales prices was up 0.3% in June 2011 to $376,000 compared to $375,000 recorded in June 2010.

On an annualised basis the number of suburbs recording annual median price increases from June 2010 to 2011 outnumbered those were sales prices have declined.

More than half (36) of the 70 suburbs included in the REIQ survey recorded price increases, while 28 recorded annualised price declines.

Source: REIQ

Median annualised sale prices in Newstead, on the banks of the Brisbane River, have increased by almost 20% from $505,000 to $605,000 though the results were skewed by the small number of sales.

Of the 28 suburbs to record a decline in median prices over the year, the biggest fall (12.7%) occurred at Carina Heights, about 7.5 kilometres southeast of the CBD, with annualised prices falling from just over $450,000 in June 2010 to $393,000 in June 2011.

Across Queensland unit and townhouse sales were up about 8% compared to the March quarter courtesy of increased first home buyer and investor demand particularly.

Over the June quarter, REIQ figures show the preliminary number of sales across Queensland in the sub-$250,000 price range increased 13%, while the number of sales in the $350,000 to $500,000 price bracket increased 5% over the same period.

“The affordability of units and townhouses, especially in times of economic uncertainty, is certainly helping to drive this segment of the market,” says REIQ managing director Dan Molloy. 

“First home buyers and investors are also making a return after being fairly absent from the market for more than a year and their increased activity is partly behind the increase in the number of sales in the $350,000 to $500,000 price bracket, especially in the southeast.”

Colliers research for the first half of 2011 found the inner Brisbane apartment market to be stabilising with investor demand continuing to underpin transaction volumes “especially for price-pointed, affordable stock generating strong rental income”.

There were almost 1,400 transactions of new apartments in inner Brisbane in the March quarter, according to Colliers.