Melinda Jennison

It is happening to some extent from Brisbane into the regions, and it is a phenomenon that we're seeing across all capital city markets.

And people are looking for some draw cards of those regions, including more affordable housing and cheaper living costs, because these are the things that capital cities can often make it harder for people to stay in capital cities at times where housing just keeps escalating in value.

Well, fewer choices for buyers simply means there's a lot more competition for quality homes.

Now, new listings in Brisbane are down around 10% over the last 12 months, but total listings, that's the total number of properties available for sale, they're down nearly 26% across the same 12-month period.

So we've got 25% less stock available

available for buyers.

And yet we've got this surge in buyer activity that hasn't appeared to slow down.

So that leads to less negotiating power, higher urgency.

So when we see fewer listings, we see a lot of A-grade properties attract more buyer interest and yet compromised properties.

They're properties that might be in flood zones or sitting on main roads.

They will sit on the market a lot longer because buyers are attracted to quality.

That's so true.

So sales volumes over the last 12 months in Brisbane are actually down 3.7%.

So some could look at that as a top line data point and suggest that the market is softening.

However, when we break that down in more detail and we look at those auction clearance rates,

This time last year, auction clearance rates in Brisbane were sitting around 50 to 55%, whereas already in February this year, auction clearance rates are between 69 and 70%.

So they're holding a lot stronger and days on market have actually declined over the last 12 months.

So this talks to the fact that properties are selling faster simply because there's fewer to buy, but there's more competition competing for the same stock.

Correct.

So over the last month, the first month of January, we saw Brisbane escalate in dwelling values 1.6%.