Posted by admin on 4 December 2008
For those of you who love their property stats, here’s a round-up of some of the latest on our market. According to RP Data Brisbane prices are down 1.7% for 2008 with our auction clearance rate just 25%. The average time it takes to sell a house is now up to 47 days and apartments are 44, with an average discount from original listed price of 6.1%. Rents have risen strongly this year – up 10% for 2 bed apartments and 14% for 3 bed houses in the inner suburbs, according to the Residential Tenancies Authority. The Real Estate Institute of Qld says the vacancy rate is 1.3% (down from 2.6% in June 2007), while in our office it’s currently 0.5%.
The ABS has just released population data for the year to June and Queensland added 98,000 residents. QIC’s Doug McTaggart says this will grow as Sydney house prices recover and New South Welshpersons creep over the border. Valuers Herron Todd White report the inner city’s market is holding up relatively well and “staying near the CBD will certainly help keep property blues at bay.” The Reserve Bank yesterday dropped official interest rates by another full point to 4.25%, some commentators are tipping it’ll go to the 2’s, and analyst Michael Matusik comments that “every 0.25% fall translates into a household being able to push up the price of housing by 2% for the same level of repayments”.
Tags: auction clearance rate Brisbane, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Herron Todd White, Michael Matusik, Real Estate Institute of Queensland, Residential Tenancies Authority, RP Data, time on market
Posted in Brisbane's rental market, Brisbane's sales market | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 29 May 2008
We didn’t spot any Councillors in the audience but around the same time of Bees Nees seminar last week and our ‘sneak-peek’ at property in the year 2020, BCC has moved to allow greater building heights in the South Brisbane/West End area. The Lord Mayor’s been quoted supporting up to 30 storey in selected near-city areas and up to 12 storey along the river.
Contemplating the population targets set by the State Government, the Brisbane City Council is looking to areas surrounding the CBD, and taller towers to accommodate more people. The announcement’s generated the odd headline or two but it seems the broader public may be accepting Brisbane’s evolution in this direction.
More than 240 locals attended our 2020 seminar, with local resident and planner Andrew Crawford mapping out this pocket’s transition, and market commentator Michael Matusik offering his insight. Michael reminded us that looking back 12 years our median house sale was just $132,750, and with that now past $600,000 it isn’t hard to imagine his predicted $1.5million price tag in the year 2020.
Notes from the seminar are available at the Research page of our website, along with a link to Michael’s full presentation. We hope you find it interesting.
Tags: Brisbane City Council, Brisbane home design, Brisbane housing supply, Michael Matusik
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, South Brisbane and South Bank, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 8 May 2008
With the Treasurer warming up for his Queensland state budget on June 3rd it’s timely to ‘blue-sky’ how our pollies could actually be helping with housing affordability. What’s well-reported is the vast undersupply of housing, with market analyst Michael Matusik putting Queensland’s annual shortfall at 44,900 homes. Interesting to note is the revenue our state generates from property – with more than $3.7billion (yes billion) flowing from stamp duties on sales, land taxes and duties on mortgages.
Despite plenty of talk in 2000 that the GST could eventually replace state taxes, some 28% of our state’s revenue still comes from taxes and duties, with an unhealthy dependency on the property industry.
Would reducing some of these help our housing affordability crisis? While the government is scrapping mortgage duty (now down to 0.2% and nil from January 1st 2009) it’s stamp duty where the state really hauls in the bucks, up 16% this year to $2.8billion. While you pay no duty to buy listed shares, a property investment of $450,000 will land you a stamp duty bill of $14,225. It may be cheaper than other states but it’s still a huge disincentive to investors, and that impacts on tenants through higher rents. Should an investor pay more stamp duty than an owner occupier? ($600 more in the above example). There’s a third of our population that rent so surely we need incentives to create new housing for them.
Victoria this week moved to further reduce their stamp duty rates, and they remain the only state to offer a genuine incentive to build new property. In the Garden State buying off the plan means hefty savings in duty compared with established property – the amount is calculated only on what exists at the date of contract, usually just the land. It’s a simple idea, offers an immediate encouragement to bring new housing supply online and Queensland could do the same thing on June 3rd. Construction costs are still rocketing ahead with home builders and developers struggling to make new housing viable, and we’ll all grow old waiting for that to change.
With stamp duty revenue soaring up along with housing prices our government’s had a huge, largely unexpected windfall over the past three years. Solid moves to encourage new housing supply must surely be on their agenda.
Tags: Brisbane housing affordability, Brisbane housing supply, construction costs Brisbane, Michael Matusik, stamp duty Queensland
Posted in property taxes and rates etc | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 8 May 2008
If it’s good enough for Kevin Rudd and Cate Blanchett! Bees Nees are hosting our own “Vision of 2020″. Focussing on West End, South Brisbane and Highgate Hill the May 19th 2008 seminar will take a look at the local property market in 2020. New apartments are replacing industrial uses at a growing rate and BRW Magazine recently tagged the area “the star performer of Australia’s urban renewal precincts”. So how will the area’s housing change over the next 12 years?
We’ve asked two well-respected property experts to share their views. Independent market analyst Michael Matusik knows the market inside out and he’s not afraid to share an opinion or two. Michael has a solid understanding of what buyers and tenants of the future will want. West End resident Andrew Crawford has another perspective as a townplanner and former manager of our Urban Renewal Taskforce. He’s been at the driving wheel of major land-use changes in the Newstead/Teneriffe area and knows the process well.
The seminar is on Monday May 19th 2008 from 6.30 to 8pm at the Convention Centre in South Bank. If you’d like us to send you a free double pass just click to email and quote “FREE-BEE 03″. We’d love to have you along as our guests.
Tags: Andrew Crawford Brisbane, Michael Matusik, Newstead Brisbane, Teneriffe Brisbane, urban renewal Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, Highgate Hill, South Brisbane and South Bank, West End, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 26 September 2007
They’re just not great headlines: “Market good, some prices up strongly, other prices up a bit”. And of course it serves some peoples’ interests to talk a market up, especially if they have a bunch of new properties to sell. So amongst the repeated stories of a return to boom days, here’s a quick look at the stats and some thoughts from on the ground in Brisbane’s inner suburbs.
According to Macquarie Real Estate Brisbane’s house prices rose 9% in the first half of this year. Matusik Property Insights report a jump of 6% in the June quarter alone (yes that’s 24% annualised). These are very strong numbers from very credible sources. And with just under 50,000 people moving to Queensland in 2006 (net of those deserting us!) demand for housing is strong. Matusik rightly reports that supply is still constrained, and shortfalls in Brisbane are “acute”.
Inner city Brisbane is clearly a mixed bag with houses and many apartments suited to owner-occupants selling fast and with prices that reflect the reported stats. It’s fair to say we are going through a mini-boom in some pockets. Investors though have not yet leapt back into the market in big numbers. While rents are rising they’re not on fire, so net returns are yet to stir serious levels of interest. And investors are a little preoccupied elsewhere. ABS report a $72billion increase in Australians’ superannuation assets during the June quarter as people rushed to meet the June 30 deadline. That money’s simply not flowing back to property – yet.
So for a lot of smaller or older inner Brisbane apartments there’s now some big price savings compared to larger apartments and houses right next door, simply because there’s fewer buyers for them. The part-time developers are starting to pounce on unwanted, tired apartments and doing a Blitz/Block/Hot Property makeover, serving them back to a hungry owner-resident market. For those keen buyers who enjoy painting bathroom ceilings on their Sunday mornings there’ll no doubt be some dollars to be made!
Tags: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Brisbane home prices, Brisbane housing supply, Michael Matusik, population growth Brisbane, superannuation
Posted in Brisbane's sales market | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 2 May 2007
Many apartment investors set a 2 bedroom minimum for their home hunt and in doing so bypass a large part of the inner city’s market. With our household size still shrinking due to divorce and lower fertility and death rates, we need to keep an eye on what demand there is for each type of home. Prominent researcher Michael Matusik this week claimed that people living alone would soon (probably within 15 years) represent Australia’s largest household type. In New Farm, Bowen Hills and the Valley lone person households already occupy more than 40% of dwellings.
So which is the better investment apartment – 1 bedroom or 2? There’s no question 1 bedrooms are cheaper for tenants. In the 1st quarter of this year median rent for a 2 bedroom in the inner city was $350, while a 1 bedder was just $250. Unless tenants intend to share or somehow make permanent use of the 2nd bedroom it’s an expensive accessory. Any good property manager will tell you right now the smaller (read “cheaper”) apartments are definitely quicker off the mark, but much of the supply available is still skewed to 2 bedrooms. In the 1st three months of 2007 there were 2480 new bonds for rented 2 bedders and 1,704 for 1 bedrooms.
What about yield/returns and capital gain? If we could find reliable stats to measure this we’d be pretty smart cookies! As an example only, our two most recent sales were in the same Spring Hill building – a 2 bedroom sold with a gross return of 5.7% and a 1 bed with 5.5%. So we did the maths on capital gains in that same building. There’s been 12 re-sales of 1 bedroom apartments since completion in late 2005, at an average 23% gain. The 10 re-sales of 2 bedders have reaped their owners an average 16% increase in value. These apartments all had very similar outlooks and the same level of finish and amenity.
Like any marketplace there’ll be trends and shifts, but affordability and shrinking households suggest that while 2 bedrooms will continue to appeal to a broad market, 1 bedroom apartments might be a worthwhile investment for the inner city. And with the money you save you can always buy two properties (we are real estate agents after all!)
Tags: Bowen Hills Brisbane, capital gains, household types, Michael Matusik, New Farm Brisbane, Spring Hill Brisbane, the Valley Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's rental market, Brisbane's sales market, Spring Hill, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 20 September 2006
Recent research has confirmed what all of us in the inner city have seen as a clear emerging trend: Brisbane’s home buyers are turning more and more to apartments and units with houses in the inner suburbs no longer affordable to most. According to a recent report from Matusik Property Insights the average Brisbanite could have afforded just 12 per cent of the detached houses that were sold during 2005.Commissioned by the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Michael Matusik’s research found just 1,916 of the houses sold were attainable for Brisbane households. Michael said the key to his study was finding what choice average buyers could afford across Queensland.
“In just five years we have seen affordability eroded, so in most towns the average household has a very limited choice in what they can buy. Previously, young people would have bought a block of land and built a house, but now younger people are more often buying a second-hand apartment,” he said.
Noosa is the state’s dearest house address on Michael’s measure and for the good news – if you’re happy to move to Rockhampton the study shows it’s Queensland’s most affordable city. The beef capital’s average household can afford to buy three-quarters of the city’s houses. Worth a moooooove?! Visit Michael’s site at www.matusik.com.au
Tags: Brisbane housing supply, Michael Matusik, Urban Development Institute Queensland
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
