Brisbane house prices hit another record high, rise 13 per cent

For anyone who has been trying to buy a house in Brisbane’s frenzied market over the past year, the figures will come as no surprise. In Brisbane’s inner-city ring, house prices have jumped a massive 30 per cent, while prices in Brisbane’s north are up 19.8 per cent. They’re up 18.9 per cent in the western suburbs and 17.5 per cent in the south.

The rises come amid record house price growth across the nation: Sydney’s median is now at $1.41 million, while Melbourne and Canberra’s medians have both cracked $1 million.

Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell said the Queensland capital was perfectly poised for a property coming of age with close to record-high interstate and expat migration largely feeding the latest growth.

“What’s interesting around hosting the Olympics is that the impact on housing values isn’t going to be during the Olympics of 2032; it’s going to be far more stretched than that because in the lead up it’s such a significant event for Australia and Brisbane so we’ll see significant investment,” Dr Powell said.

“It will grow the infrastructure and the associated job creation, and with that, it will bring economic prosperity … and what we could see is a bit of a turnaround in unit growth as well.

“I think this is something that sets Brisbane apart from our other capital cities because, until 2032, there’s a long period of time, which means there’s lots of time for purchases on big-ticket items in terms of infrastructure.”

Dr Powell added that the capital’s continued affordability compared to Sydney and Melbourne was throwing more fuel into the price cycle.

“The market is extraordinarily unique. In March 2020, Brisbane was finally waking up after 10 years of a relatively flat period, and that’s quite a long time for a capital city to not have real capital growth,” Mr Cush said.

“So, we were due for an upward swing, but to (further) drive that up was COVID and the planned infrastructure.

“COVID had this unpredicted benefit to property prices, and there’s no sign of price growth slowing. And then on top of that, you have the Olympics, and so that, by definition, adds more capital growth, and the final thing people look for is some comfort that prices won’t go down and we’re still 10 years away from the Olympics.

“So, you can see that we have this insurance policy of the Olympics counteracting any downward trend, and Brisbane is going to be on the map, and people are going to notice the city more than ever before.

“Then looking at the infrastructure coming, it’s an unbelievable story for Brisbane … in 10 years’ time, Brisbane is actually going to be improved quite dramatically.”

The sunny outlook comes hot on the heels of record price growth in the city, with Mr Cush citing the first quarter of the year as their greatest three months of sales in history.

“This quarter was probably continuing on par, but some of our markets have continued to roar … it’s probably the most exciting market I’ve worked in.”

“It’s an incredibly good time to upgrade because the houses worth $1.2 million have gone up substantially.”

But with thousands of expats projected to fly home in the coming year and storm the market, it’s a window she felt could start to close.

“There’s still plenty of opportunity for growth, and there’s going to be a lot more migration.”