27 Feb Housing hot spots: Where to buy property in Queensland in 2018
Pockets of the Brisbane property market are tipped to outperform this year, as southern markets cool and more interstate buyers turn their attention north.
While Brisbane as a whole is predicted to continue its slow and steady price growth, analysts have revealed some areas will go above and beyond.
The far northern suburbs of Brisbane within the Moreton Bay region are already shaping up for a solid 2018.
CoreLogic figures reveal the best performing suburb within the greater Brisbane region in the past quarter was Kurwongbah in the Moreton Bay region, with median house price growth of 21.4 per cent.
The median house price for the suburb, about 28km from the CBD was $750,000 with six houses selling for more than that during the period.
Terry Ryder of Hotspotting.com.au nominated the far northern Brisbane suburbs as among his ten best buying spots in Australia this year.
“Generally speaking Brisbane is expected to be stronger this year, people have been forecasting for a number of years now that Brisbane is going to rise and it hasn’t really responded in a major way as yet,’’ he said.
“But many of the stars are falling into alignment for Brisbane and southeast Queensland.
“The state economy is improving, last year Queensland created more jobs than any other state or territory, the interstate migration figures are now favouring Queensland again, particularly southeast Queensland, and there is quite a strong factor of people leaving Sydney and heading to places like southeast Queensland and part of the reason for that is the affordability equation.’’
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Mr Ryder said there was some major infrastructure spending coming up in Brisbane and southeast Queensland and there would be a major boost presumably from the Commonwealth Games.
“The Moreton Bay region up in the north is the one that we like, it’s where we are seeing the greatest rise in sales activity, it’s got affordability, it’s got good infrastructure, good transport links and it is approximate to some fairly major jobs nodes like the airport, seaport and Australia Trade Coast, so it has got a lot of things in its favour, it is probably the Brisbane area that we like the best.’’
It was the strongest market in Brisbane, had affordable housing, low vacancies and good rental yields and he said the sales volumes were strong.
In the past 12 months more than 400 houses have sold in six of the core suburbs within the region and four of those had median house prices below $380,000.
Outside of Brisbane Mr Ryder liked the Townsville market for its potential.
“You look at the current statistics it looks quite unattractive, vacancies are still quite high and in the past 12 months there has been prices going backwards, but we are always looking to the future and Townsville has got absolutely massive things coming up in its near future.’’
“It’s a good time to buy there as long as you can see the future and ignore the current statistics, prices have been going backwards for a couple of years, so it is good buying with some confidence that there is going to be price growth in the next few years.’’
Steve Jovcevski, property expert with financial comparison website, Mozo.com.au, also expects stronger price growth for the Brisbane housing market in 2018.
Mr Jovcevski said house prices in Brisbane would likely increase by 5 per cent this year.
“Brisbane has experienced steady population grown due to the affordable lifestyle it offers,” he said.
“Many Australians are migrating to Brisbane from more expensive city centres due to housing affordability and a stable local market.
“Apartment markets may struggle compared to houses due to an oversupply in some areas.”
In Brisbane, Mr Jovcevski’s favourite spot to buy in 2018 is Chermside, 9km north of the CBD.
The suburb has a median house price of $605,500.
He described Chermside “a good, steady place to invest” because of the Westfield shopping centre, proximity to hospitals and transport links.
Mr Jovcevski is even more optimistic about the outlook for the Sunshine Coast’s property market, predicting house price growth of 7-8 per cent for the region this year.
He has earmarked the Noosa hinterland suburb of Tewantin as an investment hotspot for 2018.
“It’s benefiting strongly from international tourism, but it’s also where people from Noosa actually live,” Mr Jovcevski said.
It also had a tight rental vacancy rate.
On the Gold Coast, Pimpama is his top pick because of the abundance of new land being released for housing development.
And in the state’s north, Mr Jovcevski also sees Townsville making a comeback after suffering during the mining downturn.
~credit RealEstate.com