Brisbane
Palm trees line the man-made beach known as South Bank beach in Brisbane October 19, 2003. Reuters/John Pryke

The year 2018 is expected to be good for Queensland’s property market. It is tipped to continue its solid performance with predictions that prices could grow faster compared to 2017.

The future looks bright after price growth in Brisbane was subdued toward the end of the year. Total growth for last year was 2.4 percent.

Capital cities such as Brisbane were more likely to see good conditions. Southern capitals, on the other hand, were predicted to deal with price drops. The potential higher price growth in Brisbane this year could be the result of a better job market and an increase in migration. CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said regional Queensland markets were likely to improve as values bottomed out following a substantial drop. This could especially apply to those around mining regions.

Tony Warland, Ray White Queensland CEO, believes that the beginning of the year would be strong for the property market. He said that November is always their best month for sales and that the best quarter is always the three months to March.

For Warland, the Queensland market is now much more “stable and confident than southern markets.”

“We see at least three to five people bidding at auctions in Brisbane and you can get a genuine picture of what the market confidence is, whereas in Sydney they get upset if they don’t have 15 to 20 people registered to bid, it’s so erratic,” News.com.au reports him as saying.

Another property commentator shared his forecast for Brisbane’s apartment market and some parts of Queensland’s housing sector. According to buyer’s agent Anna Porter, an oversupply will produce a bloodbath in the unit market in the years to come.

For Paul Riga, Urbis property economics and research director, Brisbane apartments are still selling. Established local developers with a reputation for quality product and solid networks are getting good results.

The new Urbis apartment report shows 300 new units sold in Brisbane in the September quarter of 2017. The average sale price has dropped more than $80,000.

Lawless has “reasonably positive expectations’’ for Brisbane. There are some factors that will help keep a “pretty decent floor” under Brisbane pricing. Meanwhile, RE/MAX Riverside’s Martin Hood said that this year would bring more stock and greater interstate migration that would lift demand.

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