The month in review: Brisbane
By Herron Todd White
September, 2009
The great southeast has been a city on the grow for a few
years now and while our highs and lows are less dramatic
than those of the big city southern state centres, we are
still reflective of markets around Australia.
Our 1st quarter sales graph reflects results experienced
on the ground by our valuers. 2007 was a bumper year
that caught many players off guard. We had come off
a heady run at the end of 2004 that levelled off into
the 2005 and 2006 market. It seemed that that there
was plenty of pent-up pressure from those buyers who
couldn’t ignore the relatively affordable cost of borrowing
and the strong first quarter results for 2007 were the start
of a solid 10 to 12 month run that that kept most of us
on the hop. Sales in the affordable end of the spectrum
drove us along happily – keeping in mind that $500,000
was still reasonable amount of change with which to hit
the Brisbane market.
Those upgraders in the mid price bracket made up about
25% of sales with the heady $1M+ providing a reasonable
market share given that in Brisbane your dollar can still
do dramatically more than it would in Sydney’s central
suburbs.
The 2008 results were a little more subdued and not
surprisingly. The 2007 heat had cooled a little heading
into the Xmas period and it was time to see if it could
crank up again for the new annum. Based on the
previous 12 months, it is no surprise that buyers tred a
little more cautiously at the start of this year. The prestige
market was probably the most bullish of the sectors with
an increase to 6.44% of the market share as opposed to
4.46% the year before. The GEC was many months away
and everyone was still set to enjoy the good times. While
the sale numbers were down, confidence was high as
plenty moved towards upgrading. The number of half to
one million dollar buyers rose only marginally but their
presence was well up in the market hence increasing
their market share by around 17%.
The results for 1st Quarter 2009 show just how frightening
the global slowdown became. The number of sales
of $1M plus properties should have risen by rights of
capital growth but the uncertain times saw the number
of actual sales more than halve and the percentage of
overall activity fall from a 2008 market share of 6.44% to
a paltry 2.78%. The first home buyers were all keen to get
in before the government grants came to an end and so
drove the market hard picking up 61.08% of the market.
It is evident most of these buyers were cleaning up the
stock left behind by frightened investors, so the number
of sellers offloading their sub half million dollar homes
and upgrading closer to the $1M mark were relatively
low –most were keen to just wait and see what happened
with their job prospects.
Changes afoot since the start of the year include an
increase in the number of $1M plus transactions – it
seems confidence is returning. Second home buyers
are still a little subdued but first home owners are keen
as. Some recent stats indicate first home buying owner
occupiers have increased their market share in QLD from
15% to around 28% this year which is keeping the rest of
us extremely pleased – Go you good things!!
|
