Brisbane apartment market sees owner-occupiers top sales

This quarter, owner-occupiers made up 61% of sales. This is a significant increase compared to 16% a year ago and 25% two years ago. Mr Riga said that 57% of sales this quarter were in recently built projects, bolstering the number of owner-occupier sales. “Owner-occupiers like to be able to walk through an apartment before committing to living there,” Mr Riga said.

“Additionally, this quarter 22% of sales were in three-bedroom plus sized apartments, compared to only 13% two years ago. Recently built riverfront apartments are almost 100% geared towards owner-occupiers, whilst higher quality apartments which aren’t located right on the river are 50% to 80% occupied by owners.”

Apartment approvals are expected to slow at the end of the year, as Urbis estimates that 4,378 apartments will be completed by the end of 2019.

“Come 2020, only 1,824 apartments are expected to settle across Brisbane,” Mr Riga said.

Going forward, the busy Inner South precinct will continue to have the largest share of new apartment completions, 31% of all completions in 2020 and 61% of all completions in 2021.

The Inner North has the second highest level of future completions. “Over the past few years we have seen suburbs such as Newstead and West End transform. Since we began monitoring the new apartment market, Newstead now has 3,629 built apartments and West End has 3,254. Along with these apartments comes increased public amenity- the local food and beverage scenes are taking off, seeing these once heavily industrialised suburbs transform into thriving hubs.” stated Mr Riga. 

• Weighted average sale price of $748,829 recorded, down $8,000 from the previous quarter

• 3 projects launched in the quarter equating to 89 new apartments

• 146 sales recorded in the quarter, a decrease of 31% from the previous quarter but in line with four quarter average of 152 sales.

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