24 Jan 2016

It will be full steam ahead for Brisbane’s inner apartment market in 2016 with strong sales expected to continue as a record number of new projects start construction.

Property analysts Urbis, in the Brisbane Apartment Essentials report for the September quarter 2015 estimated as many as 6800 new apartments may be launched over the six months to the end of March quarter 2016.

Urbis Associate Director Paul Riga said 2016 could see more “speculative” projects put on the back-burner.

“Because of the competition, and the higher construction costs and the higher land acquisition costs, the areas that will be focused on and will get to market, are the ones in the blue chip areas where developers feel confident they will be able to move that product,” he said.

South Brisbane was the powerhouse suburb leading the charge of Brisbane’s apartment market, scoring record transactions in the September quarter of 2015.

Metro’s 30-storey Brisbane Casino Towers was the top performer for the quarter, with 224 unconditional sales.

The Urbis report expected more than 2000 apartments to launch in the fourth quarter of 2015, with 21 pending projects in South Brisbane alone.

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