Brisbane house prices hit a record high, but how close is the $1m mark?

Brisbane’s median house price could soon reach $1 million, as new data shows prices have risen more than $385 a day over the past year.

The Queensland capital’s median house price rose 4 per cent in three months and 16.9 per cent in a year to a record high median of $976,464, the latest Domain House Price Report for the June quarter, released on Thursday, shows.

Brisbane units also achieved a new record high after prices increased for the 11th consecutive quarter to reach a median of $579,823. Over the past year, prices rose 18.7 per cent which is the second-steepest rise in the city’s history.

“Apart from Perth, Brisbane is the golden child of Australia’s property market now,” Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell said.

“Even if we see a slower pace of price growth for houses over the next quarter, we will reach that million-dollar milestone soon. We only need 2.4 per cent of growth to get there and that’s half the pace of growth we saw over the last quarter.”

Powell said the performance was underpinned by a severe lack of homes, with the city remaining 34 per cent lower than the five-year property supply average and 4 per cent lower than last year.

The city’s premium pockets within a five-kilometre radius of the CBD collected the largest quarterly house price growth over the June quarter, with the inner city statistical region soaring 9.2 per cent to a median of $1,692,500. Three suburbs are now in the $2 million median club, including New Farm, Ascot and Hawthorne, with Hawthorne house prices rising 31.3 per cent to reach $2.1 million. Manly gained the largest annual increase with house medians rising a colossal 45.2 per cent to reach $1,597,500.

Powell expects Brisbane’s price trajectory to continue and said the city has entered a golden era. But she warned a greater wealth divide was being created.

“Brisbane is still seeing strong population growth coming from overseas and interstate and when you add in the Olympics this means we’ve got big infrastructure spending by the government,” she said.

“But it also means more people will be locked into the rental market.”

Within the inner city prestige sector, and particularly across riverside hotspots such as Hawthorne and Bulimba, property punters say $20 million house transactions are on the rise.

Lauren Marmotta, Place executive buyers’ agent for Sarah Hackett, said those suburbs had recorded growth off the back of the riverside lifestyle and major developments such as the Bulimba Barracks.

“There have been significant sales of riverfront properties that have sold for north of $10 million over the past year and there’s a few listings now for over $20 million, such as 98 Virginia Avenue in Hawthorne,” Marmotta said.

”We recently did a sale for $6 million in Quay Street in Bulimba and that’s your base price for a home on a small lot there now,” Marmotta said.

In the unit market, New Farm is also the city’s priciest with medians rising 10 per cent over the past year to $880,000.

Place New Farm’s Aaron Woolard said a severe lack of supply had pushed medians sky-high, with entry-level two-bedroom units now fetching north of $800,000.

“Stock is down about 60 per cent. We had one unit in Fortitude Valley on the weekend that had 39 groups through of mostly first home buyers,” he said.

“But we’re also seeing more upgraders in this market, too, because the house market is so unaffordable. So rather than upgrading into a house, they are now upgrading into units in more desirable locations.”

Author: Domain