Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 15 February 2010
Did you know one quarter of Brisbane’s residents live in our inner city and these suburbs have 350,000 jobs, one half of the city’s total workforce?
We often read about Brisbane’s inner city and how it’s a unique lifestyle compared to the ‘burbs, but it’s rare to see this defined in any way. Where is our “inner city” and how are its residents any different, if at all?
In a current BCC and government planning process called “River City Blueprint” we’ve got a rare snapshot of the area they define as the 5km radius of our CBD. From Taringa to Morningside, Lutwyche to Annerley, this plan is being overlaid on the more than 30 separate planning documents in the area. It’s an attempt to give these suburbs a cohesive master plan.
So here’s the facts:
Brisbane’s inner city is just 78 square kilometres or 6% of our geography. With approx 250,000 residents that’s 28 people per hectare. Around 51% of us live in medium and high density dwellings compared to a quarter to all Brisbanites. We have less kids than the ‘burbs but more 18-34 year olds. There’s fewer families, more lone person households and more of us choose to work.
No big surprises there.
This is a multicultural area with a quarter of us born overseas. After Poms and New Zealanders those born in China are highest in number so Mandarin is our 2nd most spoken language, (assuming you call Kiwi “English”!). Some 22% say they don’t have a religion and Buddhism (2%) is still a distant second to Christian denominations (56%) for those who do nominate a faith.
Compared to Brisbane’s ‘burbs-dwellers we have higher incomes, more Bachelor and higher degrees and there’s more professionals and managers. We also own less cars and 10% of us walk to work.
The Blueprint taskforce collated this data from the last Census so it’ll be interesting to see how it’s changing. Go to their website if you want to read more or submit your own views on our inner city’s future.
One thing’s for sure: if the government’s projections for 200,000 new inner city jobs comes true we’d better build some more housing.
Love to hear your comments. How is inner Brisbane different to the city’s outer suburbs?
Tags: Annerley Brisbane, Brisbane City Council, household types, Lutwyche, Morningside, River City Blueprint, Taringa
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, trends in Brisbane property | 1 Comment »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 13 February 2008
Finding the next real estate “hot spot” is a sport some investors follow with a passion. Various magazines and websites devote pages to crystal balling and it wouldn’t be a good Australian bbq without someone claiming inside knowledge on the next suburb to experience double-digit price growth.
One of the most well-supported theories is to follow major infrastructure projects and look for the impact from new roads, rail lines, bridges, schools and other major community amenities. When Toowong’s City Cat ferry stop was proposed the developers of the adjacent Regatta Riverside apartments contributed heavily to the pontoon’s sizeable cost, punting that easier CBD access would earn them extra revenue – and no doubt it did. New infrastructure can often mean quick jumps in property prices.
To test the theory we took a look at property near the new Eleanor Schonell Bridge in the inner south’s Dutton Park. Completed in December 2006 it’s a ‘green bridge’ linking the area to St Lucia’s University of Queensland. UQ has some 38,000 students and staff, so when Brisbane City Council first announced the bridge inner south agents declared rents and home prices were about to boom…
One year on the local market appears largely unaffected. The median rent of a 2 bedroom apartment did jump 22% in Dutton Park and its adjoining suburbs (up from $230 to $280/week in the year to December 2007). But interestingly 2 bedroom apartment rents also jumped 21% in the postcode in the year before the Bridge opened! Three bedroom houses actually recorded a small drop for the year. Dutton Park’s median house sale price in 2007 was up 9% on 2006. Good, but considered relatively slow compared to other inner city suburbs.
Suburbs adjacent to the Bridge did perform well but there’s no real sign of this easier access to UQ having any major impact. This has always been a popular part of Brisbane and it continues to be, and buyers have probably been pricing the new infrastructure in over the years since its announcement. For tenants though the Bridge may just be a ‘good to have’ and they’re not paying $30 or $40 per week over and above the market now that it’s completed. Ironically the recent expansion of the PA Hospital has had as much or even more impact on demand and we’ve sold homes in Annerley where that was a definite drawcard.
Tags: Annerley Brisbane, Brisbane City Council, CityCat Brisbane, Dutton Park Brisbane, Eleanor Schonell Bridge Brisbane, PA Hospital Brisbane, Regatta Riverside West End Brisbane, St Lucia Brisbane, Toowong Brisbane, University of Queensland
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, Brisbane's rental market, Brisbane's sales market, Dutton Park | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 12 September 2007
If you’re like most real estate buyers the first (or at least second) thing you want to know about a property will be the price. For years we’ve heard buyers’ frustrations with not knowing whether the home is anywhere near their budget and the feeling that some agents take you for a fool. As far back as the mid-1990’s we saw a USA home buyer survey that reported more than 2-thirds would not respond to an ad that didn’t have a price. And last year www.realestate.com.au surveyed 1000 Aussie buyers – and a whopping 92% said they would be unlikely to enquire about a property with no price indication.
So why do agents persist in leaving the price off ads? There’s always been auctions with no prices, then there were price ranges (some agents had colour coded bars and all sorts of confusing clues), but now, with perhaps more insult to buyers’ collective intelligence, there’s the “offers over” line. Becoming increasingly common in Brisbane ’s inner suburbs this often sees a home worth $800,000 being promoted as “offers over $725,000″. And here’s why it happens: some agents are scared to tell their sellers the truth. Rather than advise what their research shows (e.g. “recent sales and current competition suggest your home’s worth approx $800,000″), a lazy agent can duck the issue and throw it to the market without a firm price.
They also avoid losing the job to another agent who buys the listing by telling the seller “$875,000 will be no worries mate”. Agents can justify the “offers over” spiel by saying it “feeds the greed” and captures maximum interest from buyers. But surely it also wastes a lot of people’s time.
We listed a house in Annerley last week and there was a collective sigh from buyers who responded to the ads, pleased that they knew the price and, while it was priced high to test the market, we sold it in the first week for very close to list price. Sellers delighted, buyers contented and no-one misled at any stage.
Here’s a recent horror story of one agent: having listed a home for “offers over $520,000″ she sold it for $572,000, telling the buyer she couldn’t accept an offer for any more than that. Why? She’d been told that if a home sold for more than 10% over her advertised price she might be accused of misrepresentation or bait advertising! Sad ending to the story is that home may well be worth $600,000.
Auctions certainly have their place (not nearly as often as some agents use them in our opinion) and good promotion should always focus on getting a quicker sale at the best possible price for the seller. But some agents would do well to consider that buyers are informed and have little time for games and deception.
Tags: Annerley Brisbane, auctions Brisbane, Brisbane home prices, USA, www.realestate.com.au
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »
