Queensland property is booming

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Westpac’s senior economist Matthew Hassan said the state’s markets were now very tight with “sales running well ahead of listings and extremely tight rental vacancy rates in most areas” tipping the market into a boom.

“Market turnover has continued to hold well above pre–pandemic levels and prices are pushing new historic highs,” Hassan said.

“While there are some soft patches—Brisbane’s inner city and tourism exposed areas—the state’s wider fundamentals remain very constructive.”

Domestic migration to the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Cairns has bolstered a double digit price growth in the past six months. Westpac reported sales were running “well ahead of listings” down to just 3.4 months of sales in Brisbane, where the long run average was five months.

“The Queensland Consumer Housing Sentiment index points to more turnover gains ahead suggesting the market will become tighter still as 2021 unfolds,” Hassan said.

Nationally Hassan said price expectations had continued to soar. The Westpac-MI Consumer House Price Expectations Index has increased 17.8 per cent since November, to a seven-year high of 154.7.

In light of a strong housing upswing Westpac economists are now tipping a return of prudential policy measures in the second half of 2022, to cause a flattening in 2023.

The meteoric rise of property prices over the next two years is not unique on the world stage according to Oxford Economics.

Over the past six months new house approvals and prices have also lifted in the United States, Canada and New Zealand, despite vastly different impacts from Covid-19.

In each instance very low interest rates, elevated household savings and shifts in preferences were fuelling the resurgence in housing investment, Oxford Economics reports.

Source: Oxford Economics, Westpac’s Housing Pulse Report, Taryn Paris Urban Developer.