THE average price of a brand new apartment in Brisbane has dropped by over $17,000, latest quarterly analysis found, with some buyers taking three times longer than usual to pay up.
The Urbis Brisbane Apartment Essentials report, out yesterday said just 810 apartments sold in the June quarter – the Queensland capital’s lowest level since early 2014 and one set to continue into 2017.
The average sales price in the June quarter was $578,580, a drop of $17,084 since the March quarter.
About half the sales were two bedroom units with a large proportion in “more affordable inner Brisbane suburbs”, with a third made up of one bedroom units with a carspace.
The report comes on the eve of the Australian Bureau of Statistics property price data which was expected to see Brisbane much steadier than southern neighbours, especially Sydney where prices were expected to “show a collapse”.
David Chin of Basis Point Consulting said Sydney prices would “fall off a cliff” because last June’s spike would be removed from annual figures, but Brisbane prices would see “less volatility in price movement”.
Urbis Associate Director Paul Riga said at present Brisbane apartment valuations were “coming in without much of an issue”, but foreign buyers were feeling the pinch of an ASIC crackdown on property loans.
“They are settling however extensions have been issued. Previously they could settle in 14 to 28 days but right now we’ve seen that push out to around two to three months,” he said.
About 25 new projects were expected to launch between July and December this year, bringing 2,850 new apartments to market – about half the level of supply at the same time last year.
Ryan Leddicot of Stack Projects Queensland, who saw 80 per cent of apartments pre-sold at Liv 4005 in New Farm, said owner occupiers were not seeing issues with settlement.
But generic stock targeted at investors would struggle in the current market.
“Developers should be building properties that people want to live in for a long time,” he said. “Size matters. The key is how small the project is and how big the apartments are.”