Brisbane house prices fall 1% in March quarter as first-home buyer participation dwindles to 10% of market: REIQ

Larry SchlesingerDecember 7, 2020

The Brisbane median house price decreased 1% to $515,000 over the March quarter, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland.

The median price was based on 1,867 sales over the three month period with owner occupiers and investors prevalent but first-home buyer numbers falling sharply.

The top performing suburbs were Norman Park, five kilometres east of the CBD and Stafford, six kilometres north of the CBD, with both recording house price gains of 15.8% over the quarter to medians of $770,000 and $498,000 respectively.

The highest number of sales was recorded in the outlying new suburb of Forest Lake being developed by Delfin, with 61 sales. House priced slipped 3.8% to $369,000.

The most expensive suburb was Ascot, with a median house price of $930,750 from 12 sales.

St. Lucia recorded a 28.8% decline over the quarter to a median of $830,000 from 11 sales. For the year St. Lucia sales are down a more modest 4.9%.

In other prestige suburbs, prices fell 7.4% in Paddington off 17 sales and by 4.6% in Bulimba off 21 sales to medians of $740,000 and $880,000 respectively.

In total 44 Brisbane suburbs underwent house price corrections over the quarter while 30 recorded gains.

There was a more pronounced decline in the greater Brisbane market which recorded a 2.3% fall to a median house price of $430,000 off 3,662 sales.

House prices were up 1.7% in Ipswich to $299,900, but fell 2.7% in Logan City to $321,000.

Moreton Bay recorded a 0.8% gain to $445,000 while house prices fell by 1.8% in Redland City to $445,000.

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 The REIQ said the Brisbane housing market remained steady with 12 month figures showing a 1% gain for the year to March for Brisbane City median house prices and 0.9% gain for the greater Brisbane detached housing market.

According to the REIQ, it is owner-occupiers who are leading the way with activity levels up compared to last year.

The estimated numbers of investors in the market also continues to be steady with low vacancy rates likely to encourage more investment activity in the months ahead.

“Unfortunately, first home buyers continue to lag well below historical averages and they are about 50% fewer than the same period last year,” Kardash said.

“First-time buyers usually average about 18% of the market but are currently sitting around the 10% due to the removal of the First Home Owners Grant in mid-October last year.

This was replaced by the $15,000 Great Start Grant (previously called the first-home owner construction grant) in September last year, available for first-home buyers buying or building a new home valued under $750,000.

First-home buyer had until mid-October to finalise their purchases.

“The importance of first home buyers to the overall health of the property market cannot be under-estimated so we hope to again see some assistance for first-time buyers of established property in this year’s State Budget,” says Kardash.

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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