City Beat: Brisbane unit market insights for February
Brisbane unit values continued to show signs of improvement over February, as overall market sentiment across the country saw dwelling value declines flatten.
CoreLogic's March Home Value Index showed that, for the first time since August, units values in Brisbane didn't decline. They didn't rise either, with CoreLogic suggesting they stayed flat over February.
The previous monthly performance of the Brisbane unit market (which incorporates both apartments and townhouses) suggests values will start rising across March.
Over December, unit values contracted -0.4 per cent, then an improved -0.2 per cent decline across January. February's flatline has forecasters expecting modest growth next month.
August 2022 was the last time unit values in Brisbane rose, by 0.7 per cent, which took the unit median to $504,520.
33 Manning Street, Milton
Since then there have been modest declines, not as severe as other property market segments or locations.
The median value has now slipped to $490,000. Over the last 12 months, unit values are still 3.5 per cent higher than they were in March 2022.
The Brisbane unit market is performing much stronger than the housing market, which is now -8.6 per cent lower than it was this time last year. Values contracting a further -0.4 per cent over February, to a median of $767,000.
CoreLogic's national index declined -0.14 per cent over February, the smallest monthly fall since May 2022 (-0.13 per cent), when rate hikes commenced.
CoreLogic’s research director, Tim Lawless, said the stabilisation in housing values over the month coincides with consistently low advertised supply levels and a rise in auction clearance rates.
“The past four weeks have seen the flow of new capital city listings tracking -17.0% lower than a year ago and -11.9% below the previous five-year average,” Lawless said.
“This trend towards a below average flow of new listings has been evident since September last year, coinciding with a loss of momentum in the rate of value decline.”
Lawless however suggested the recent stronger results don't necessarily indicate the market has bottomed.
“Considering the RBA’s move to a more hawkish stance at the February board meeting, along with an expectation for a weaker economic performance and a loosening in labour markets, there is a good chance this reprieve in the housing downturn could be short-lived,” Lawless said.
“We also have the fixed-rate cliff ahead of us; arguably the full impact of the aggressive rate hiking cycle is yet to play out.”
Brisbane's unit market is becoming more and more attractive for investors. Since the early phases of the pandemic, weekly rental values are up nearly 24 per cent in Brisbane, compared to 10.4 per cent in Melbourne and 19 per cent in Sydney.