Brisbane Housing Market Insights: February 2021
The Urban Developer’s Brisbane housing market insights for February reveals increased demand for houses has been underpinned by increasing consumer sentiment and a surge in interstate migration.
This resource, to be updated monthly, will collate and examine the economic levers pushing and pulling Brisbane’s housing market.
Combining market research, rolling indices and expert market opinion, this evolving hub will act as a pulse check for those wanting to take a closer look at the movements across the market.
So, what were the highlights across Brisbane’s property market throughout January 2021?
January 2021
Brisbane house prices have soared to record heights after a steady 12 months of growth and a rebound in listings and sales over recent months.
Brisbane's housing market has remained particularly unaltered by the closure of international borders, where historically high demand from overseas migrants has been disrupted.
At the year’s end Corelogic reported a 4.7 per cent lift in its Brisbane home value index for the year, with houses up 4.6 per cent and units 2.3 per cent, year on year.
Across the first month of 2021, dwelling values in Brisbane saw an overall median monthly price rise of a 0.9 per cent.
Brisbane's house prices grew by 1 per cent growth for January with the current median value now $583,902, the highest it has ever been.
The suburb highest median value for houses, of $1.85 million, is currently located in the inner-city suburb of Teneriffe.
Brisbane's listings are now up 10.2 per cent across January compared to the same time last year as sellers look to take advantage of higher than normal interstate migration rates and low supply levels.
Across the December quarter 1,194 auctions took place across Brisbane with an average auction clearance rate of 53.1 per cent.
Unprecedented rates of interstate and overseas migration have sparked one of Brisbane’s strongest rental markets in a decade, with the city clocking record-high median prices that, in parts, are outstripping Melbourne.
Tenants capitalising in the new year to find new living arrangements, pushed Brisbane's vacancy rate down to 1.7 per cent.
Unit rents across Brisbane have also been on a downwards trajectory through the pandemic, however recent months have shown a similar trend of rising rents as conditions start to stabilise.
Rental demand has transitioned towards detached and lower density housing markets since the pandemic, reflecting the disruption to rental demand from overseas migration, but also the stress of changed working conditions, caused by Covid restrictions.
Additionally, with more people working from home, demand for larger housing options has lifted.
Queensland has continued to record its highest private house approval figures since since September 1994 bolstered by interstate migration and government stimulus measures.
Upwards of 30,000 new dwellings are expected to be built this year, almost 60 per cent more than projected in April last year before government stimulus measures such as Home Builder were introduced.
Investor lending remains relatively modest overall, at a national level, although based on our own level of inquiry, there is definitely a lot of investor interest circling Brisbane at the moment.
The latest lending figures show that owner-occupier lending has risen to historical highs, with first home buyer numbers in Queensland up 70 per cent year-on-year.
Over the September quarter, Brisbane gained the most of any other major city in terms of net internal migration, with 3,200 people moving to the sunshine state, according to recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed.
Brisbane housing market forecasts
ANZ economists forecast Brisbane house prices will rise by 9.5 per cent next year, as low interest rates and government stimulus flow through the economy while Commonwealth Bank updated its forecasts, projecting a strong rebound in prices across the second half of 2021.
CBA now expects Brisbane house prices to increase by 16.6 per cent to December 2022 compared to 13.7 per cent in Sydney and 12.4 per cent in Melbourne.
Westpac has also updated its property forecasts, with Brisbane real estate prices tipped to surge 20 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
Article by Urban Developer
