Source: Australian Property Journal
Queensland's residential property market is continuing to grow, as much of the country begins to experience stagnation and decline for the first time since the onset of COVID.
According to REIQ’s data for the first quarter of 2022, median house prices are up 3.23% and median unit prices are up 2.17%, despite disruptions throughout the period including further COVID-19 outbreaks, flooding, several long weekends and the run up to the Federal Election.
“Over the past two years, the story of Queensland’s property market has been an extraordinarily positive one from a seller’s perspective, and the latest quarterly data tells us the Sunshine State market is still a rising star,” said Antonia Mercorella, CEO of REIQ.
Mercorella also noted the Brisbane LGA median house price broke the million dollar mark, based on almost 3,000 sales, growing 5.31% over the quarter to a new high of $1,090,000.
While the median over the 12 month period sits at $950,000, an increase of 25.83% compared to the previous corresponding year.
With Greater Brisbane seeing an increase in median house prices of 2.84% to $760,000, or a 20.22% boost to $685,250 for the 12 month median sale price.
Queensland LGAs with the highest volume of house sales throughout the quarter, excluding Brisbane, were the Gold Coast with 2,084 sales, Moreton Bay with 1,696 sales, Logan with 1,340, Sunshine Coast with 1,216 and Ipswich with 1,200.
“Of course, it can be easy to be disillusioned and discouraged as a buyer watching these prices reach new heights, but it’s important to remember these are median sales figures over a relatively short period of time and there are always more affordable options in areas with a million-dollar median – so it’s worth doing your research before assuming an area or suburb is out of your reach,” added Mercorella.
For example areas with median house prices still sitting at or below half a million include Ipswich at $500,000 and regional areas including Rockhampton at $350,000, Townsville at $390,000, Bundaberg at $400,000, Gladstone at $405,000, Mackay at $425,000 and Toowoomba at $480,000.
While LGAs with the strongest levels of growth over the quarter include Noosa with a 15.38% rise to a median of $1.5 million, followed by Logan with a 7.75% increase to $580,000, Toowoomba up 6.67%, Gladstone up 6.58% and Ipswich up 6.38%.
On the other hand, Mackay saw a 2.3% decline for the quarter, while still seeing a 12 month growth of 7.69%.
Queensland also saw its median days on the market tighten by eight days to just 16 days, with Greater Brisbane at 13 days, Moreton at 10 days, Ipswich at 11 days and Redland at 12 days.
While Gladstone spent the longest on the market on average at 33 days, Rockhampton at 30 days and Mackay at 28 days.
Meanwhile units say median sale price growth of 2.08% to $490,000 in the March quarter based on 2,694 sales, growing by 8.29% over the 12 month period to an annual median sale price of $470,000.
Greater Brisbane median unit prices were up 2.22% for the quarter to $460,000, based on 3,800 sales, or an increase of 8.11% to $440,000 for the year.
Unit medians were highest in Noosa for the quarter at $977,000, Sunshine Coast at $646,000 and Gold Coast $575,000.
Gladstone units saw the greatest periods of growth over the quarter growing 18.37% to $290,000, Fraser Coast up 16.18% to $395,000, Logan up 10.91% to $305,000, the Sunshine Coast up 7.21% and Moreton Bay up 6.05% to $403,000.
While Bundaberg fell by 13.11%, Noosa by 5.10%, Rockhampton by 3.3% and Toowoomba by 2.97%. Though for the year Bundaberg was up 11.77%, Noosa was up 22.92% and Rockhampton was up 17.77%.
Units were on the market for 22 days on average over the year, shrinking 10 days from 32 days.
“We recognise that at some stage the rate of growth we see in Queensland will start to level and stabilise, simply because it would be difficult to sustain this level of accelerated growth – but for now, there’s still plenty of wind in the sails of Queensland’s property market,” concluded Mercorella.
