scrawni

What are the house prices like in Brisbane? They appear to be going up,up and up. Looking at a nice three - four bedroom, not directly on the coast.

What about NSW maybe on the boarder with Queensland?

We are looking at both these areas as we have relations in Brisbane and in McLeans NSW. Are they set to continue to rise rapidly in the next year or are they set to slow down?

Can anyone help.

Ceri

This is a quick reply... as it's hard to answer, depends what area of Brisbane... so I'll go by my "standards" of being "OK/nice" in the Brissie region.

You can buy a three bed brick house for anything from 140 thou upwards... sky's you're limit (140 would be the cheap areas. 15 yr old houses.. mainly North Side, Deception Bay etc) ... for 200 thou you can by a four bed, and even build new... this is really a hard question to answer.. the areas here differ so much in prices..I can tell you I am building, four bed ensuite, spa bath , walk in wardrobe etc, fitted kitchen , backing onto bush/reserve (costing me around the 180 mark, without the extas driveway ,fans, tiling etc, alot we are doing ourselves because of the "shoody/cheap fittings"... so probably when done... maybe around 250 spent)... but I bought the land two years ago before the boom here, and signed with the builder a year ago and fixed the price... looking through the papers here.. when built .. it's now currently well over 300 thou, touching to the upper 300's... My same house if it was say in Bulimba area it would cost say quarter of mill! (seriously... the areas around Brisbane differ greatly, it's like living in Knightsbridge (spelling?) anyway an expensive suburb in London to say a another suburb.. It's hard to say 'How much a house costs in Brisbane"... It's like saying "how much does a house cost in England" ... depends on the area.


cheers

Wolfen

Hi Ceri,

The figures you are quoting, are they AU $ or UK Sterling?

Cheers
Neil

Ceri

$ AU

scrawni

Thanks for the reply,

I know it was a very open question but what with the house prices going up I was a bit worried about how much they are rising.

We don't want to sell our house, move to Brisbane and not be able to afford to buy another!

Anyone know of a good real estate web site?

doub

Scrawni,

We are looking at Brisbane as well, but I think over the last couple of years our house in the UK has increased in price more relativly speaking, than the houses in Brisbane. Also remember that a few years ago you got about 2$ to the £, now you are getting about 2.8$ to the pound. I think although the house prices have risen sharply in Brisbane, they still appear to be a pretty good buy compared to £150k for a two bed terrace in the W. Midlands. There is also talk about a house price crash in both countries - you never know, time it right and you could make a killing!

Mark

doub

http://www.realestate.com.au

scoobydooathome

Thats interesting ...

Thanks.

pommiesheila

Try Domain.com.au
Also REIQ (Real Estate Institute of Queensland) for facts and figs.
The realestate.com.au is a good one as someone else has said.
If you already know the area(s) you are interested in some of the regional papers have property supplements which are available online, e.g. our local paper produces the propertyguide.com.au which covers all the Redlands area.

We have noticed a very marked increase in the price of houses in the Redlands since we started looking around 18 months ago. When we first decided to come out here, a 4 bed with pool in this area could be had for around $200-250,000. Now you can't get anything decent under around $350,000. To give you a personal example, we bought ours for $399,000 in May, and it was valued just before Christmas at $470,000. Having said that, our neighbours back in the UK reckon our old semi is now worth around £180-£190,000 and we only got £168,000 for it, so I suppose its roughly the same story there.

Ceri

When we first started looking at houses to buy (around 2 years ago), we looked at one in Kippa-Ring (near Redcliffe) , brick 4 bed and inground pool (it was around 15 years old, Bungalow), anyway it was $150 thou believe it or not... same house now is $280, 300. Houses are werid prices, I live in redcliffe, you can buy a shack/wood for prices such as 300 thou, also brick the same price too.

I found it cheaper, or more to speak the same price to build new as it is to buy, which sort of works out cheaper as you only pay stamp duty on the land and not the building of the house, plus you need not worry about termites, wiring etc etc.

We went for the building option because it appealed to us more than buying "old"... everything brand new and built the way you want it to be.

Regarding house prices rising here, I was watching a programe last week and "they" were saying that Brisbane house prices were slowing, and predicted a small fall... BUT I haven't seen no signs of this, the houses in my area are still rising.

cheers

scoobydooathome

Hmmmmm sound like the UK re-visited, wait untill the interest rates go up in OZ then it will hit the fan,

Cheers

pommiesheila

We have already had a couple of interest rate rises here since we arrived, and have seen no signs of any slow down yet. I think it will come, but probably "level out" rather than drop. The housing market here seems to be more of a 2 phase a) steady rise b) levelling off period type scenario, rather than the UK , where it is a) ballistic, and then b) collapse into the negative equity situation etc.

captaincook

Housing market in Brisbane is being fueled by low interest rates and migration. It tends to move in cycles and usually a year behind Sydney / Melbourne. The Southerners sell up their houses which have enjoyed huge rises and can afford to move to Brisbane and buy the same with money left over.

There has also been a building boom in Brisbane over the past 18 months which means older post war houses on reasonable blocks of land say 800 sq.mtrs + are being D9'd for unit / townhouse higher density development. Accordingly, sale prices are pitched at developer margins not your usual mums&dads.

There is going to be a flood of units coming on to the market this year mostly sold to southern investors (tax advantages in property here vs stock market) who more than likely wont be able to rent at the prices anticipated so will either sell or hold at a loss. This is bound to effect the market and apply a brake. Having said that theres a lot of cashed up people everywhere all anticipating this so that could put a floor under the prices.

Also remember that in Oz after GST the property market was dead. Howard introduced incentive of $14,000 for 1st timers to build. This had the effect of dragging forward any young person who ever thought of building in the next 3/5 years to build last year. This along with investors and low interest rates fueled the boom. There is still $7,000 available and worth investigating if you are new to Oz and building.

I think the cheaper houses will continue to rise just like in UK. The population trend is also going to be supportive as so many new people are arriving in Brisbane each year. There is little land 5 / 10 km from Brisbane for new build so demolitions (D9s) are the only solution which increases costs and reflects in sale prices. Building costs have also risen in the past year and raw materials like concrete have had huge price rises.

However whilst the above is supportive of Brisbane particularly the population shift most people think the big rises are over now and the one off adjustment for low interest rates higher employment low inflation has been achieved. There is also huge levels of debt like UK which will bite if interest rates rise which is more likely here than UK.

Renting here really is much better value than UK. Interest rates are also higher so money in the bank can earn 4.8% (AMP online saver account) gross. Its probably worth any new arrivals finding a nice house central to CBD to rent say $300 per week and sitting with cash in the bank for a year to let the steam out of the market, let the developers and the investors get a little stung before moving in to the market. It also makes sense to get a feel for the place.