Brisbane inner city market undersupplied

Posted on Friday, May 24 2013 at 3:54 PM Australian Property Investor

There’s a very limited supply of housing in Brisbane at present and auctions are increasing in popularity as sellers regain a more optimistic view of the market, according to one analyst.

James Freudigmann is the national manager of Propell Buyers’ Advocates and believes an analysis of market data from Brisbane shows some interesting trends.

For one, Freudigmann says one-third of all properties listed for sale in the Queensland capital’s inner city suburbs are under contract.

“To have over a third of properties going to auction is a sign that the market is starting to heat up,” he says. “Agents are taking them to auction to get exposure because of the shortage of supply of quality stock.”

Inner city houses within five to seven kilometres of the CBD and priced in the middle segment of the market are especially in demand with both homebuyers and investors, he says.

Some pundits are still describing the housing sector in southeast Queensland as subdued, but Freudigmann thinks they’re missing the mark. He has analysed property listings to prove his point.

Across 37 inner city markets, there are currently 218 houses listed for sale on realestate.com.au, he says. Of those, 77 are under contract already and 13 are actually units that have been incorrectly listed as houses.

A further 30 are priced in excess of $600,000, leaving only 105 houses for sale in that prime middle price segment, he says.

“With 37 suburbs in total, that means on average there are three houses under $600,000 per suburb.”

Of the 105 remaining, 37 are going to auction and another 33 are what Freudigmann describes as “secondary”, or less desirable than others given their proximity to main roads, train lines or even a history of flooding.

“This leaves only 31 houses for sale (and not going to auction) in these 37 suburbs in the inner city sub $600,000 price point.”