Brisbane apartment insights: What happened to Brisbane apartment prices over October?
Brisbane apartment values spiked 1.3 per cent over October, posting its second highest monthly returns of 2021, CoreLogic's Hedonic Home Value Index found.
The continued growth sees Brisbane's apartment values rise 3.3 per cent on a rolling quarterly average, following 0.6 per cent gains last month and 1.4 per cent growth over August.
Apartment values ended 2020 at $390,000. Now the median apartment value is $437,000, up 9.7 per cent year to date.
Brisbane's rental increase has also been one of the highest in the country, up 2.3 per cent over the last three months, only second to Sydney where rents rose 2.4 per cent.
Overall Brisbane was the fastest growing market over October, with values up 2.5 per cent across the combined house and unit markets.
It was another month in Brisbane where the price gap between houses and units grew further. Houses saw 2.8 per cent gains, more than double the rate of growth for units.
“As housing becomes less affordable, we expect to see more demand deflected towards the higher density sectors of the market," CoreLogic's research director, Tim Lawless, said.
"House prices continue to outpace wages by a ratio of around 12:1," Lawless noted.
"This is one of the reasons why first home buyers are becoming a progressively smaller component of housing demand."
Lawless expects the flick to higher density to occur most prevalently in Sydney than anywhere else in the country. The gap between the median house and unit value is now nearly $500,000. In Brisbane it's around $300,000. Melbourne's house median was $731,000 after the 2.8 per cent October gains.
"With investors becoming a larger component of new housing finance, we may see more demand flowing into medium to high density properties," Lawless added.
"Investor demand across the unit sector could be bolstered as overseas borders open, which is likely to have a positive impact on rental demand, especially across inner city unit precincts.”