ClickCease

Brisbane sales volumes and building approvals strengthen

According to the December Brisbane Residential Market Update by Knight Frank, sales volumes and building approvals have strengthened over the past year. Up until October 2015, Brisbane sales volumes recorded strong figures, as did building approvals, which greatly increased in the three month lead up to October.

With Brisbane seeing good amounts of growth and plenty of opportunities ahead of it, now is the perfect opportunity for property investors to tap into the Brisbane property market while prices are still relatively affordable.

Capital growth for houses in October were up by 0.2% and up 4.3% YoY, while apartments were up 0.3% and 2.8% YoY. Sales volumes were also up 6.5% for houses and up 5.7% for apartments YoY to October. This equates to 41,046 houses and 19,579 apartments and symbolises that both home buyers and investors are turning to Brisbane to take advantage of the more affordable property prices here than in other Eastern seaboard cities including Sydney and Melbourne.

In terms of annual rental growth, houses recorded a growth of 2.2% while apartments remained stable over the year to October. Currently, weekly medial rents are achieving around $455 for houses and $380 for apartments. Gross rental yields also average 4.78% for houses and 5.23% for apartments, which is good for property investors renting out their property.

As well as sales volumes up, building approvals in Brisbane in the three months to October were up 34.2% for apartment approvals compared to the same period in 2014, whilst houses are 5.6% lower. There were a total of 2,890 houses as well as 4,758 apartments approved in Greater Brisbane.

The population of Greater Brisbane is also growing and experienced a 1.7% population growth from June 2013 to June 2014, whilst this population growth is expected to continue with an annual rate of 1.2% projected until 2021. This population growth will therefore create a demand for residential property throughout Brisbane, especially as the population is set to continue to grow.

Unemployment levels have also fallen and stood at 5.8% in October 2015, down from 6.3% in October 2014. Total vacancies also stood at 2.3% in September 2015 for Greater Brisbane; with 3.3% for the inner ring suburbs (0-5km), 2.4% for the middle-outer-ring (5-20km) and 1.7% for the surrounds.

2016 will be an exciting time for Brisbane as investors will turn their focus to this growth city and we expect sales volumes to greatly increase this year, especially for new apartments in the inner and middle to outer rings.
Published on 18th of January 2016 by Marty Stanowich
Marty Stanowich
Marty Stanowich

DID YOU LIKE THIS ARTICLE?

Sign up to the iBuyNew newsletter to receive more article and property news straight to your inbox

Your privacy is important to us. To better serve you, the information you enter in this form is recorded in real-time.
Off the plan

Want access to exclusive opportunities in off-the-plan property?

Sign up to our Free VIP membership for a personalised service.

Learn more