Brisbane house prices hit a record high - and one suburb nears a $3m median

8 hours ago 3

Brisbane’s median house price has surged by $22,000 in just three months, reaching a record high as interest rates fall.

The price of a typical house in Brisbane increased 2.1 per cent to $1,060,311 over the June quarter, the latest Domain House Price Report, released on Thursday, shows. It’s the longest period of continuous growth clocked in 21 years.

Brisbane’s median unit price also reached a record high, up 3.6 per cent in three months to $678,772 – the longest continuous stretch of unit price growth on record.

More than 30 markets notched 20 per cent-plus price growth in just 12 months, and the gains pushed New Farm within splashing distance of a $3 million median.

Domain’s chief of research and economics, Dr Nicola Powell, tips more rises ahead as buyer confidence builds despite waning affordability.

“We expect prices are still going to rise. We have got improved buyer confidence, we’ve seen a slight lift in the auction clearance rate and there’s a strong expectation that the cash rate will lower in August which will [be] setting the stage for a strong spring,” she said.

Brisbane’s median house and unit prices are at a record high.

Powell said the pace of growth in the city’s unit sector was eye-watering, placing mounting pressure on first home buyers.

“Brisbane is the second most expensive capital to buy a unit after Sydney and it has held that title for a year now,” she said.

“That says a lot about the change in affordability and the investment activity we’ve seen rise across Brisbane.”

According to the report, New Farm remains Brisbane’s most expensive suburb with a median of $2.95 million following a 5.4 per cent annual increase. Ascot follows at $2.4 million with Hawthorne in third at $2,180,250. There, prices soared 94.2 per cent in five years.

For units, Teneriffe leads the pack at a median $954,000, up 13.6 per cent in 12 months. New Farm sits just behind at $950,000 after a five per cent annual rise and Bulimba follows at $932,500 after a 13.7 per cent jump.

“I expect we’ll be seeing that $3 million suburb occur soon. New Farm is just a hair’s breadth away from that,” Powell said.

“New Farm is in the top 50 most expensive suburbs nationally and it’s now rubbing shoulders with the best suburbs of Sydney.”

In Hawthorne, the suburb’s staggering five-year growth has been underpinned by an influx of young families seeking prestige homes on large blocks close to the city, said Place Estate Agents’ Carla Haddan.

Unlike neighbouring Bulimba, Haddan said Hawthorne offered typically bigger blocks and was dotted with palatial estates - one owned by Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart - with dozens of multimillion-dollar sales clocked in the past three months alone.

Haddan recently sold 99 Elliott Street, settling for $6.5 million in May. Hawthorne’s top house sale remains just over $20 million - fetched for Mimosa Estate in Gordon Street late last year.

“What we’re seeing now is a generation turning over here,” said Haddan.

“Families who have been here for years with kids now in university are selling these homes to the next generation with young kids. And they’re paying big money to get a big backyard and that lifestyle close to top private schools.”

She said upcoming infrastructure - including a Harris Farm slated for Bulimba’s Oxford Street and the master-planned Bulimba Barracks precinct - would fuel future growth.

In Greenslopes, where units recorded some of south-east Queensland’s sharpest annual price growth at 34.3 per cent to $771,000, Belle Property Coorparoo’s Jonathan Harper-Hill said first home buyers were leading the charge.

“Greenslopes had been undervalued for a long time and it’s now finally catching up,” he said.

“It offers better value than suburbs such as Coorparoo, yet it’s well positioned in terms of transport and access to the CBD.

“What we’re seeing now is an influx of buyers that are young couples, young families, young professionals, downsizers and even investors. But the majority would be the young first home buyers.”

Harper-Hill just sold a three-bedroom brick unit built in the early 1990s for $1.042 million – a unit that would have fetched about $700,000 a couple of years ago.

In Birkdale, the median house price jumped 26.4 per cent over the past year to hit $1.15 million - cracking the million-dollar milestone and becoming one of Brisbane’s fastest rising housing markets.

Kaden Rogers, of Storia Estate Groups, said the suburb had become a magnet for inner-city buyers moving to the bayside.

“Birkdale is basically on the brink of the Brisbane City Council region and it’s one of the first bayside suburbs you can get into while still having that close proximity to the city,” he said.

“But compared to Carindale you’ll save hundreds of thousands on a home there.”