Brisbane’s housing market is set to turn a corner in 2019, one analyst predicts. Image: AAP/Darren England.
BRISBANE’S housing market is on the cusp of turning a corner after years of treading water, with 2019 set to put the Queensland capital “back on the map”.
One of the city’s leading property analysts predicts next year will be a “gamechanger” for the residential sector, with rents set to rise, sales volumes to increase and unit supply to be eaten up.
Ahead of a presentation to the Urban Development Institute of Australia today, Place Estate Agents residential research director Lachlan Walker has revealed the suburbs he believes will benefit the most from capital growth in the year ahead.
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Mr Walker said Brisbane residential sales volumes had been declining year-on-year for the past four years, but that was about to change.
“It’s been tough out there, but 2019 could see us turn around and put us back on the map,” Mr Walker said.
“Six months ago, there was not a positive news story to be seen (about Brisbane’s housing market), but we’re back on the radar.
“We’ve had 12-18 months of oversupply, but that’s getting soaked up, so expect rents to improve and vacancies to decline.”
Lachlan Walker, residential research director for Place Estate Agents.
Mr Walker said the city’s relative affordability compared to other capital cities, low unemployment rate and pipeline of infrastructure projects were also working in Brisbane’s favour.
“All those things indicate things are going to start to improve over the next 12 months,” he said.
“A lot of commentators had been suggesting Brisbane would see huge price falls — that hasn’t happened.
“We haven’t seen any real price change, apart from a slight increase in houses, and units haven’t collapsed — we’re pretty resilient.”
With projects such as the $3.6 billion Queens Wharf development, the Howard Smith Wharf precinct and Cross River Rail in the pipeline, suburbs in the vicinity are set to benefit in 2019, according to Mr Walker.
The site of the Queen’s Wharf development in Brisbane’s CBD.
“These are gamechangers for Brisbane and I think we’ll see huge amounts of growth in those regions,” he said.
“Areas like Woolloongabba through to Coorparoo will come into its own.
“And areas like Albion will see some stronger growth.
“Generally, I think the east and west corridors will remain strong and the higher end suburbs on the river in the west will continue to perform — it is pure, owner-occupier, high quality stock.”
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Over the past 12 months, the best suburbs for capital growth for houses were East Brisbane, Coorparoo, Teneriffe, West End, New Farm, Greenslopes and Albion.
Among the worst performers were St Lucia, Kelvin Grove, Newmarket and Windsor.
The top performing suburbs for unit capital growth in 2018 included Hawthorne, Toowong, New Farm, Teneriffe and St Lucia.
Suburbs where there had been a significant increase in new apartments scored the worst for capital growth over the past year, such as Bowen Hills, Dutton Park, Woolloongabba and West End.
CoreLogic capital city home value changes as of the week beginning November 12, 2018.
It comes as Brisbane is leading the nation in all four property performance indicators, according to the latest figures from property researcher, CoreLogic.
It was the only capital city to record an increase in home values over the past week, month, year-to-date and 12 months.
While home values in the other mainland capital cities headed south, houses and units in Brisbane edged higher — defying the downturn gripping the country’s housing market.
BEST SUBURBS FOR CAPITAL GROWTH IN HOUSES IN 2018
BEST SUBURBS FOR CAPITAL GROWTH IN UNITS IN 2018