Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 5 October 2010
It’s hard to write an attention-grabbing headline with words like “okay” and “normal” but that’s the best way to describe our view on the current sales market in Brisbane’s inner city. The luxury end might be a bit wobbly but for most property owners there are good results to be had if they sell.
There are buyers about, they are cautious, but where they see something they want they are making reasonably quick decisions and they are paying reasonable prices. It’s rare to hear of something selling cheaper than it might have done a year or two ago. Similarly we haven’t witnessed too many record-breaking results. Prices are okay and probably nudging up slightly.
One ‘typical-ish’ recent result: we sold an apartment last week for $45,000 more than its owners had paid just two years ago, a 13% gain.
So why then do some people say it’s not a good time to sell? Maybe because we’ve become so used to high growth! Researchers RP Data wrote an interesting report on the changes to Australia’s median prices over the past thirty years, and specifically looked at the gains in 5 year lumps. Our house prices jumped a whopping 13.9% per annum from 2000 to 2005 and then a solid 7.5% pa over the past five years.
So the “I’ll wait til my price jumps another $50,000 before I sell” approach is tempting. We’re in denial that the market might have returned to a period like the 1990’s when we had 2.8% per annum growth from 1990-95 and 5.2%pa from 1995 to 2000.
Every real estate agent prays for another boom, but worn as our knees might be, we’re still getting on with making sales and helping our clients move on with their plans.
Tags: Brisbane house prices, capital gains, RP Data
Posted in Brisbane's sales market | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 14 August 2009
Have you been in your home for more than 7 years? Chances are you haven’t.
Interesting stats out today from property researchers RP Data, charting the average time we own a piece of real estate. Tracking all sales in the year to May their team recorded the average time since the property was bought by that owner. For Queensland apartment owners it was just 5.7 years, our house owners 6.8 years.
As real estate agents we want to compliment all those people who chose to sell!
Our livelihoods aside it’s interesting how short the average tenure really is. We remember hearing stats out of the USA many moons ago that 7 years was their average holding time and we couldn’t imagine Australians would get to that point.
Interestingly the longest stays seem to be in more affordable suburbs. Maybe first home buyers get their piece of Australia and hold on tight. Investors are also more active in these areas and may have longer term plans than owner-residents.
Overall property owners are much happier to move once our dwellings no longer fit our needs, something unheard of a generation or two ago. Whatever the reason Queenslanders sell so regularly we thank you, and encourage you to do it more often!
Tags: affordable suburbs Brisbane, Brisbane real estate statistics, first home owners, RP Data
Posted in trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 3 July 2009
Freely available sales information is a double-edged sword for sellers today. It makes it easier to do the homework in setting a listing price, but your buyers are also well informed, and if that price is too high they will simply choose the next result on their search list. The web really is transforming the way buyers research and choose their property. And Australia’s dominant real estate portal has now released a tool that makes every home buyer an expert in their chosen neighbourhood.
Realestate.com.au has always had a click through to old web ads showing properties marked as sold. But agents being agents, very few of these listings showed accurate sales data. Hoping to generate phone enquiry, dimwit agents would put massive ranges on their sales record – “$500,000-600,000″ or similar.
REA’s alliance with RP Data will now give buyers exactly what they want.
RP Data collate titles office records and the links at the bottom of every property ad will now show fully accurate sales prices and dates. Where possible it will include a link to the old web ad as well. This list of the 6 most recent sales in the suburb will match the search – apartments or houses. It’s a simple tool and while it’s not a complete match of data to the chosen home it does brings enormous power to a buyer’s negotiating position.
Very few homes are identical so a good agent, presenting your property with well-targeted promotion, can still achieve a price that exceeds recent sales. History is history and buyers know that markets can move.
But agents that rely on their ‘insider knowledge’ to bluff a buyer will find the going even tougher. More than ever the marketing of property needs to be about finding points of difference, key features that benefit that particular buyer, and establishing value in their minds.
This is no longer a game to be played by amateurs.
Tags: Brisbane real estate agents, Brisbane sales data, home buyers Brisbane, real estate portals, RP Data, sales information Brisbane, titles office Queensland, www.realestate.com.au
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 1 July 2009
By nature, I’m cynical. I hear the nation’s not officially in recession and I’ve been reading the reports about price growth in Brisbane property. RP Data’s Tim Lawless said yesterday the “latest results herald a national residential market recovery.” But after owning my St Lucia apartment for 22 years I was always going to be slow in making the decision to sell.
I grew up believing, and still do, that you should never sell. Back in 1987 I got a first home grant of $4,000 from the PM (thanks, wherever you are now Bob!) and the capital gain’s been pretty tidy in that time. It’s good real estate. But this unofficial recession’s opened some opportunities to expand the business and I could do with the funds. And now is looking like a great time to sell.
My main reason to sell now? There’s a shortage of property on the market. Not a massive undersupply, and for the dearer price points this probably doesn’t apply. But for my place at sub-$400,000 the sellers I’m competing with are very low in number. Scarce, in fact. So my sale price is likely to be a fair bit higher than if I’d sold this time last year (provided my agent here does their job!)
In recent weeks our agency’s made one sale at full price and another at more than full price. First home buyers are still busy out there and with good reason – interest rates are very cheap and the massive job losses haven’t happened. Sentiment seems to be turning as journos make a running story of good news and confidence is bubbling up.
Properties are selling. Some home owners have worked out that getting a bigger home and upgrading in a slow market can save you money. How? If prices were down 10% your $500,000 home has dropped $50,000, but if you’re buying an $800,000 place it’s down $80,000. You might be $30,000 better off than if you’d traded up during the boom. And right now the lower end’s prices are strong, so for many the trade up equation is even better.
Regardless of economic news the world goes about its business. People are born and people die, couples join and split and the normal demands affecting the real estate market continue. I don’t think the market’s on fire but I do think some home owners are missing a good chance to sell.
This time it won’t be me.
Rob Honeycombe
Managing Director – Bees Nees City Realty
Tags: capital gains, consumer confidence, first home owners, home price growth, housing price points, RP Data, St Lucia Brisbane, Tim Lawless, trading up
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 22 May 2009
RP Data's Tim Lawless
Last Wednesday’s seminar was full of info for Brisbane landlords, with the head of the RTA outlining major changes in their new legislation and RP Data’s Tim Lawless talking us through the current market.
The main “take home”? The new legislation is more complex for landlords, with greater rights for tenants that have to be handled very carefully. Each review creates new challenges and this one will catch some landlords and agents out if they’re not right up to speed on the new Act.
Here’s a full copy of the notes we took from the seminar. You can also click through to copies of the presentations from Tim Lawless and Rob Honeycombe.
Tags: Brisbane rents, Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act, Residential Tenancies Authority, RP Data, Tim Lawless
Posted in Brisbane landlords | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 15 May 2009
Australia has fewer million-dollar suburbs as the global financial crisis erodes home values, according to RP Data’s latest report, with the total number of suburbs with a median home value of $1million down from 152 to 134 for the year to end February.
In South Brisbane there have been 1 sales above $1 million so far in 2009 with 1/225 Vulture St selling in March for $1.32m and 6/212 Vulture St selling in January for $3.3m.
Tags: RP Data, Vulture Street Brisbane
Posted in South Brisbane and South Bank | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 18 March 2009
Fresh back from a seminar today with leading market commentators RP Data, here’s a bunch of recent stats we noted down: Brisbane’s current rental vacancy rate is just 1.3%. That works out to less than 5 days per year so Senior Research Analyst Cameron Kusher says that’s just people moving in and out – with no real vacancy at all.
We’re now Australia’s second most affordable capital city for both apartments and houses (last year’s 3.4% drop in our median house price helped) and Cameron says while rental yields are growing investors are generally still thin on the ground. And while we all saw a big slowdown in property across Brisbane last year RP Data confirmed how few sales actually occurred: Our sales volumes for 2008 were down 84% on our ten year average!
Tags: Brisbane house prices, Brisbane housing affordability, Brisbane vacancy rates, RP Data
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market, Brisbane's sales market | No Comments »
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 Rob Honeycombe on 30 July 2008
Open the paper today and you’re flooded with offers of 8.1% this and 8.25% that – just lock your pennies up for a year or more. It’s tempting many investors who’ve sold out of other assets, and especially those that want simple security. Meantime though there’s a very bright spot for investors who’ve kept their money in property – rents are rocketing up.
Brisbane’s just recorded another big jump, with the June Quarter showing a 6% rise in median rents for 2 bed apartments. The inner-city suburbs leapt 9%, and yes that’s in just three months. Suburbs like New Farm, the Gabba and Albion all clocked double-digit growth so this is without doubt a boom market. Three bed houses are also up 5% in the inner city and the cause is ‘nose on your face’ stuff: we don’t have enough rental homes. There’s now less properties in the total rental pool than this time last year – in the CBD itself we lost 399 rental homes for the year. (A 2 bed apartment in postcode 4000 now rents for $520/week!) Owner-residents continue to soak up apartments and there’s ongoing conversions to short-term “holiday” leasing.
Commentators often look to gross return figures to kick-start a market. Once the yields rise high enough investors seem to prick their ears up, with 5.5% often considered the ‘hurdle rate’. So here’s three of our current sales listings: 6.2%, 6.4% and 6.8% (the annual rent divided by the price) – and they’re all modern city apartments priced under $550,000. Prices have been flat for a few months now so with rents rising fast these new, strong yields should be no surprise. It’s simple maths.
These are gross returns of course so they aren’t comparable to the bank’s 8%. But if you believe there’s capital growth to come the holding costs for today’s property owner can be pretty minimal. It’s not often we see this meeting of two such extreme markets, with sales prices flat and rents surging ahead at record rates. There’s a good choice for buyers today but that may be short-lived as sellers have stopped flooding the market. The latest RPData stats show new listing numbers have been trending downwards since early May.
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Tags: Residential Tenancies Authority, RP Data
Posted in Brisbane's rental market, Brisbane's sales market, Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 23 January 2008
The time a property takes to sell is often a good indicator of the state of the market. So in our inner city at the moment there’s no doubt that market’s very healthy. Recent stats from RP Data report Brisbane’s average house was taking just 25 days to sell and an apartment 24. These are much quicker than you’d usually expect, confirming what is rightly seen as a seller’s market. While these sort of stats reports have only recently become something close to reliable, we’d suggest a 40-50 day time on the market might be considered a ‘balanced’ or normal period, with buyers and sellers on relatively equal footing. Darwin’s averages are currently 54 and 65 days for example, more than double here in Brisbane.
The national winners? Melbourne and Canberra are both averaging less than 25 days on the market for house and apartments. With some stockmarket investors looking for a new place to invest it’ll be interesting to watch the next few months…
Tags: RP Data, time on market
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
It’s hard to write an attention-grabbing headline with words like “okay” and “normal” but that’s the best way to describe our view on the current sales market in Brisbane’s inner city. The luxury end might be a bit wobbly but for most property owners there are good results to be had if they sell.
