Brisbane property market update February 2024

Brisbane property market update February 2024

Melinda Jennison

Brisbane Property Market Update: February Sees Continued Growth Amid Low Supply Levels

February demonstrated another month of positive price growth for Brisbane across the housing and unit markets combined. This marks the twelfth consecutive month of positive price growth across both segments of the market in Brisbane with houses up 15.7% and units up 14.8% over this period of time. It’s certainly been a significant shift in values, second only behind Perth in terms of market growth performance across all capital cities throughout Australia.

Brisbane continues to outperform the national average for growth on an annual, quarterly and monthly basis, signifying the strong fundamentals that remain in place throughout the city. Brisbane also remains one of the top three performing capital city markets throughout the country across the same recorded time periods.

Whilst the month-on-month growth is still positive, the rate of this price escalation in Brisbane continues to ease, although very slightly. This is different to what was observed in other markets around Australia with the broader national Home Value Index (HVI) by CoreLogic recording an acceleration of growth during February compared to the Brisbane Property Market Update January 2024.

Part of the reason for the continued upward price pressure in Brisbane is due to low listing volumes throughout the city, relative to the long-term average. Currently, Brisbane buyers have about 40% fewer properties that are listed online and available for sale to choose from, compared to the long-term average. Additionally, compared to 12 months ago, total listings in Brisbane throughout February were down 15.7%, according to SQM Research.

 

Source: SQM Research

 

On a more positive note, newer listings were 7.6% higher throughout February compared to the same time last year, and there was a strong increase in new property listings for buyers to consider, compared to January. This is not a surprise given many sellers choose not to list their properties too early at the beginning of a new year, but instead prefer to wait until school holidays have concluded and the majority of people are back into the normal routine of the year.

Apollo Auctions data revealed an average auction clearance rate of 65.85% in Brisbane with an average of 4 registered bidders per auction, which was a big jump from January figures which revealed an average of 2.9 registered bidders per auction. The number of registered bidders who actively participated in each auction throughout February was 56.03%, down from 70.5% in January.

Brisbane Dwelling Values

Dwelling values increased 0.9% in Brisbane throughout February. The quarterly change has been 2.9% which is progressively slowing with a quarterly growth rate of 3.2% recorded at the end of January 2024, and 3.7% at the end of December 2023. So, whilst property values across the city are still increasing month-on-month, the rate of growth is decelerating throughout Brisbane.

For the first time in history, the median value of a dwelling in Greater Brisbane has surpassed the $800,000 mark. It is currently $805,593 which is $8,775 more than last month and $26,323 more than 3 months ago.

 

Source: Corelogic

 

The current median value of a dwelling in Brisbane is the third highest out of all capital city markets throughout Australia. It’s now higher than the national average median dwelling value as well. Despite this, the median values for both houses and units throughout Brisbane remain lower than those in Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne. It’s what makes up the dwellings data within each capital city that continues to contribute to this bias in the data.

The segmentation of dwelling value growth in Brisbane shows that the top end of the market has slowed down, with the bottom end of the market now growing at a faster rate than other segments.

Properties that make up the lowest 25% of dwelling values have grown 4% over the 3 months to 31st January, down from 4.2% over the 3 months to the end of December. The middle 50% of property values are now tracking at a quarterly change of 3.4%, down from 3.7% the month prior. And the top 25% of property values have grown 2.8% over the last quarter, compared to 3.5% one month ago. It is clear based on this data that the price deceleration is happening at a faster rate amongst the more expensive properties throughout Brisbane.

As the unit market continues to show strength and outperform the housing market in terms of price growth, it’s important to recognise the contribution that units would be making the lowest 25% of dwelling value growth throughout the city.

 

PropTrack dwellings data also confirms that Brisbane experienced positive growth throughout February 2024, again confirming performance exceeded the national and capital city average. This is the first month that PropTrack data has shown Brisbane dwelling values have reached the same level as Melbourne dwelling values. Both capital cities have now recorded a median dwelling value of $797,000, being above the national average, despite both house values and unit values in Brisbane remaining lower than in Melbourne according to PropTrack.