Market Place

Regional Queensland market maintained strong performance despite COVID

Regional Queensland has achieved something that few jurisdictions across Australia have managed: it has maintained its previous high levels of well-performing markets in defiance of Covid-19.

Hotspotting’s Winter 2020 survey of sales activity has identified 54 growth markets and 30 consistency markets, down only marginally on the results of the previous (Autumn 2020) survey, which found 55 growth locations and 34 consistency ones. This was the strongest performance by Regional Queensland in three years and the results of this latest survey are only slightly inferior.

The number of “declining” markets has reduced (from 12 to six to four in recent surveys) and there are now few danger markets in Regional Queensland outside of the perennial struggler, Mount Isa.

Compared to the Covid-inspired deterioration in the results of other major jurisdictions across the nation, this is a commendable performance – and provides further evidence that regional areas have done much better in the pandemic period than the biggest capital cities.

The well-performing markets include Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Hervey Bay, Gympie and Toowoomba, as well as the Regional Queensland heavyweights, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast.

In addition, we have seen further evidence of recovery in the Gladstone market, after multiple years in decline.

We continue to rate the Sunshine Coast one of the strongest economic and real estate stories in the nation and it has produced another solid result in this winter survey. The Sunshine Coast Regional Council area and neighbouring Noosa Shire have 11 suburbs with rising sales activity and eight others with consistent sales performance. There are also a number of locations which have delivered strong price growth in the past 12 months.

Nearby Gympie has a number of growth locations and is poised for a sustained period of growth, given major infrastructure projects and its improved links to the boom Sunshine Coast economy.

Sales activity overall in Gold Coast City has declined, unsurprisingly given the impact of Covid-19 on an economy so heavily reliant on tourism. This is reflected in the 35 suburbs with plateau markets. Nevertheless, there remain 10 suburbs with rising sales activity.

There are solid performers spread across Queensland, stretching from Townsville in the far north to more southerly locations like Hervey Bay and the inland city of Toowoomba.

Townsville has five suburbs with growing sales and, boosted by major infrastructure projects, is poised for a recovery from the previous downturn.

Mackay, a growth market we have noted in previous surveys, also has five growth suburbs and has a number of locations delivering strong price growth. Sales in South Mackay have been 20-27-35-34-52 in the past five quarters, a pattern which had led to strong price growth recently.

Rockhampton is showing increasing signs of revival, with four growth suburbs and three with consistent sales performance. The suburb of Berserker has lifted quarterly sales from 21 to 31 to 33 to 43 in the past year. Frenchville and Gracemere display similar growth patterns.

The Fraser Coast, based on Hervey Bay, is showing increasing signs of a growth phase, with five suburbs with growing buyer demand.

Toowoomba, after several years of moderate activity, is showing symptoms of a rising market, with three growth and four consistency suburbs.

The one disappointing result comes from Cairns, which stood out strongly in the previous Autumn survey as a rising market with nine growth suburbs. But this Winter survey finds only two growth suburbs, with sales in most Cairns suburbs falling away recently. This is an economy strong reliant on tourism, including international visitors, which has taken a serious hit from Covid-19.

Regional Queensland has also performed well on price growth. Six out of 10 locations have produced some level of growth in their median house prices in the past 12 months and most of those where prices have declined have done so only marginally.

The Sunshine Coast has a number of strong performers with annual price growth, led by Warana (19%), Minyama (16%) and Noosa Heads (11%).

The Gold Coast also has a number of growth locations, including Runaway Bay (18%), Worongary (15%), Palm Beach (11%) and Mermaid Waters (10%).

Mackay has some outstanding performers, including South Mackay (16%), Blacks Beach (14%) and Bucasia (10%).

I’ve previously noted the revival signs in Gladstone, with vacancies down and rents rising. We are now seeing evidence of prices rising, although from a low base. West Gladstone is up 16% and Glen Eden 23% in annual terms, while Calliope, New Auckland and Tannum Sands have all risen 8-9% in the past year.

Other resources-related locations where prices are rising from low bases include Moranbah (up 19%, but still only with a median of $240,000) and Blackwater (up 45%, but with typical houses still worth only $130,000).

Emerald is headed back to growth, with quarterly sales of 50-56-59-63-72 in the past five quarters.

This article is republished from www.propertyobserver.com.au under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Market Place

Boomers a ‘Force of Change’ in Retirement Property Market

As teenagers they invented pop culture and now—much older, collectively wealthier and arguably wiser—they are defining a new age group and re-inventing retirement living.

Millenials may have surpassed them in numbers but baby boomers are still having significant influence on world economies and trends—not least in the property market.

“The baby boomers are coming through and have become a force for change in the seniors’ market,” said Cameron Kirby, managing director of Kirby Consulting Group, a retirement and aged care specialist.

“The more progressive operators are definitely getting their ducks in a line.

“And there’s a lot of developers interested in dipping their toes in the market for the first time, some of them with more than 30 years’ experience in the development industry, because they can see there is huge opportunity.

“[But] many developers that want to enter into this space are probably a bit reticent because they’re worried about the complexity of it, they’re worried about the unknowns.

“The opportunities, however, far outweigh any of their concerns.

“And if you’re offering what the market wants, you’re going to be successful.”

Kirby will be a speaker at The Urban Developer Developing For An Ageing Demographic vSummit on April 28.

“The sector is continuously changing,” he said.

“You’ve got land lease communities and over-55 developments that have been moving into the traditional retirement village space.

“And, at the moment, there’s a lot of talk about integrated care in retirement living with a greater weighting on having more retirement villages and less aged care.”

Last year, a survey by benchmarking firm StewartBrown showed 58 per cent of aged care homes were operating at a loss, up from 55 per cent the previous financial year, and 32 per cent made a cash loss.

“Aged care has got some major challenges … but in the meantime there’s also the baby boomers coming through,” Kirby said.

“What I’ve seen over the last 10 years is a bit of a slide where low-care people that used to go into aged care are more likely to go into retirement villages and, equally, people that used to go into more traditional retirement villages are now probably more interested in moving into land lease communities and over-55s concepts.

“Land lease communities are growing very fast and are hugely attractive, there’s no doubt about that … but retirement villages have upped the ante enormously as well, they tend to offer much more wellness and are moving more towards the care side of things.

“Certainly, operators who are offering care in retirement villages are going from strength to strength.

“There’s an increasing amount of quality retirement villages with hotel and resort-style living and state-of-the-art amenities coming online. Pools, gyms, spas, saunas, cinemas, you name it they’ve got it.

“But those retirement living operators that have a full continuum of care solution that’s what the market is demanding … [the boomers] know they’re going to need some support down the line so they’re planning for their future.

“It really doesn’t matter, however, whether you’re doing aged care, retirement, over-55s or land lease community … because demand is outstripping supply. There is a market for all of those and they attract very different types of buyers.”

Kirby said given Australia’s ageing demographic, the seniors and retirement market was a “much more defensive proposition” for developers.

“Just as healthcare is a defensive stock on the stock market, I think seniors living is a much more defensive play in the property sector,” he said.

“It tends to be more needs driven than what a straight-out residential property play would be.

“And so, I think if we are going to be headed towards a softer property market this is an area that can really shine because seniors will still have the wealth and will still want to move and look at downsizing opportunities.”

Article Source: www.theurbandeveloper.com

Market Place

Houses still in high demand, apartment prices lag

The price growth of apartments continues to lag rocketing house prices in many suburbs across Sydney and Melbourne, with the trend showing little signs of abating.

The widening price gap between houses and units is a long-term trend driven by land scarcity in our biggest cities, with the difference tending to be widest between houses and high-rise apartments.

While house prices in Sydney’s North Ryde soared 29 per cent in the year ended March 31, unit prices in the suburb grew by a mere 6 per cent. Similarly, prices in Homebush grew 29 per cent, compared to unit price growth of just 7 per cent.

In Sydney’s Pennant Hills, house prices grew 24 per cent, while unit prices were flat, figures from CoreLogic show.

It is the same story in many parts of Melbourne, with Essendon North house prices growing by 19 per cent over the same period, while apartment prices fell by almost 1 per cent.

Houses in Melbourne’s Canterbury saw their prices jump more than 14 per cent, while units dipped 4 per cent. In inner-city Hawthorn East, houses were up 9.6 per cent, compared to a 6 per cent fall in unit prices.

Earlier analysis by CoreLogic showed more expensive property markets, particularly those close to CBDs and in areas where there are high numbers of units relative to houses, tend to have the biggest price gaps.

Eliza Owen, head of research at CoreLogic, says one of the reasons for the relative recent poor price performance of unit markets is COVID-19 related travel restrictions, including the closure of Australia’s international borders.

Demand for investment units in urbanised centres likely fell because of their high exposure to migrants and international students.

During the height of the pandemic, many units were empty, particularly in inner Melbourne.

The re-opening of international borders is seeing arrivals from overseas rising quickly, which should help to support the prices of units in both Sydney and Melbourne, she says.

However, Owen says one area of concern remains the prospect of higher mortgage interest rates, with prices of investment units more sensitive to rate movements than houses.

Many analysts expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to start increasing official interest rates this year, possible as early as June, with lenders expected to pass on any hikes in their variable rate mortgages.

Following two years of surging property prices, the big gains made over the past year appear to be over.

Sydney house prices were 0.1 per cent lower in March after being flat in February. Unit prices were 0.5 per cent lower in March and 0.3 per cent lower in February.

In Melbourne, house prices down 0.2 per cent lower in March, following flat prices February. Unit prices were 0.2 per cent higher in March and 0.1 per cent higher in February. However, those small gains came after big falls in inner-city unit property values during COVID-19 restrictions.

Coming off the back of strong annual growth, falling affordability continues to be a key factor affecting property market conditions.

A surge in the cost of living and rising rents is restricting the ability of prospective homeowners to save and borrow.

In last month’s federal budget, the government expanded the number of places available in its low-deposit scheme.

The program allows first-home buyers, and others, to buy new or existing dwellings with a deposit of only 5 per cent, instead of the usual 20 per cent that is needed to avoid paying expensive lenders’ mortgage insurance.

Article Source: www.brisbanetimes.com.au

Brisbane

Brisbane house prices leave units in the dust

The gap between house and apartment prices in Brisbane is now the widest in at least two decades, but is set to shrink over the next 12 months as housing affordability bites and buyers choose cheaper options, Colliers says.

Colliers residential director Queensland, Andrew Roubicek, said the price difference between houses and apartments in Brisbane has reached 45 per cent compared with an average of around 20 per cent between 2003 and 2015.

Brisbane house prices further escalated with the onset on COVID-19 when people placed a higher value on privacy with interstate migration to the Sunshine State also propelling Queensland’s property market.

Property data company CoreLogic estimates that Brisbane house prices increased 32 per cent in the year ended March 31 compared with 15 per cent growth for units over the same period.

CoreLogic said house price growth is slowing faster than units and Mr Roubicek predicted that Brisbane apartment values will rise by “at least” another 15 per cent in the next 12 months.

Mr Roubicek said rising construction costs have hit the new apartment market hard and that comparable established stock costs about 25 per cent less.

“There have been several examples of new developments achieving pre-sale [targets] only to have developers refund deposits and tear up contracts because building costs escalated to a point where it was financially unviable,” he said.

“As a consequence, developers who are looking to acquire new development sites are forced to increase their projected sales prices by around 20 per cent.

“Just 18 months ago a two-bedroom apartment in Brisbane might have sold off the plan for $9000 per square metre.

“But to build that apartment today the developer would need to achieve a sale price of $11,000 per square metre for the project to stack up.”

He said as result new stock is selling slower than established units, a trend that will play out through the rest of this year.

“The market is coming to terms with those newer prices and are seeing in the short-term better value for money in the established unit market.”

He said it is a similar scenario to when GST was introduced in 2000.

“When GST came into the market overnight the cost of housing went up 10 per cent and put more demand into the established market, where the prices of stock grew and the difference between new and second hand became narrower.”

Mr Roubicek said he believed the record price gap between houses and apartments will contract through the year.

“If you believe in history, if you believe in charts, and take a long-term view you would have to think that gap is going to narrow because everyone’s talking about affordability, everyone’s talking about interest rate movements,” he said.

“Natural forces will push what would have been a buyer of a detached home back into the unit market because of affordability.”

Article Source: www.afr.com