Read most media articles and you will be told the Brisbane property market is cooling.

I’m calling BS.

First and foremost, anyone with more than 5 minutes experience in the industry knows there is no ‘Brisbane property market’. Just as there is no Australian property market.

Yes. Prices for cookie cutter, oversupplied investor stock and low-grade properties are taking a hit. They had to. The investment fundamentals for these properties were never there but FOMO raised their attractiveness and artificially inflated their prices. But remove that rubbish from the mix and we’ve got a pretty big issue with under supply and an increasing level of demand.

At the heart of it, the Brisbane LGA is still severely undersupplied in certain locations for specific property types and demand is not abating. In my 22 plus years in the industry I’ve not seen supply so low. Remember I am talking about quality property in the Brisbane LGA.

How have we got to this point?

Years of short-term knee-jerk poor policy and amazing weather.

Yes, I jest but, in all seriousness, people have been flocking to Queensland over the past 4 years, but no one is leaving.

Pre-COVID, population fluctuations were common – people would come, and people would go. One of the common reasons for departure was to seek higher paying job opportunities interstate or overseas.

But with the ability to secure well-paying corporate jobs that have work from home, or hybrid arrangements, the requirement to relocate away from the Sunshine State has disappeared.

The challenge for quality established housing supply is that no-one is selling until they can buy something else. But no-one is leaving. We now have a bottle neck of owners who won’t sell until they can buy but can’t find anything to buy until someone leaves. And no-one is leaving! And around and around it goes.

Our lead buyer’s agent, Nathan Wunsch, lined up to register for an auction last week to bid for a local buyer. He and about 16 other bidders. A reasonable appraisal was $1.5m but it sold under the hammer for an eye watering $1.86m.

That is feet on the ground, real life experience. It certainly isn’t indicative of a softening market that is based on a wrapped up median price.

We have an undersupplied highly competitive market that is under pressure from strong population growth and poor policy over the long term.

The median house price rose over 16% in the 12 months to May 2024 and for the first time in over 10 years, units experienced similar growth.

What does that mean to property buyer in real terms? If you were looking for a property in May 2023 and had $800,000 to spend, the same property will now cost you around $920,000.

If you were looking for a family home around $2,500,000 in May last year, that same property is likely going to cost you about $2,900,000.

These are real numbers.

Delayed decisions, inaction and refusal to accept market conditions have cost many buyers dearly.

With the level of buyer demand being so high, most quality properties are receiving multiple offers within days of going to market. Last week one property had 21 offers and sold in the mid $800Ks. Last year would a comparable property would have sold for about $730K.
For that reason our team has focussed on capitalising on our 20 years of relationships with agents to find opportunities BEFORE they hit the open market. Of our purchases in 2024, 73% have been pre-market or off-market.

Sadly there are a few sad tales of people who have not been ready to accept the current market conditions and missed out on good quality property at what would have been a good buy.

Will recently found an off-market with high land value to purchase ration plus good yield. Very rare in Brisbane. We could have purchased that property for $2.2m but the buyers wanted to “wait”. For what? We are still unsure but it went to the open market and sold for $2.45m.

The lesson: good quality properties are hard to find. When they are there, be decisive and have confidence in the rigorous due diligence, evaluation and depth of local knowledge our team provides.

Our team all wanted to buy that property!

On a positive note, clients who have been decisive and purchased over the past year have already enjoyed an uplift in the property value, as well as the relief that comes from being a home owner, instead of an anxious buyer.

If you are an owner, enjoy the ride and consider using your new found equity to add to your portfolio or upgrade your family home. But if you are a buyer you are still facing tough times and we are here to help.

Want to know more? Click Here to find out more about how our experienced Buyers’ Agents can help you. Or call us or send an email to receive more information.