May 28, 2020
Soaring sale figures and skyrocketing buyer inquiry are smoothing out the pandemic scars on Brisbane’s rapidly recovering market as experts say the city is just weeks away from pre-COVID-19 transaction levels.
“As far as buyer inquiry goes, we are back to where we were pre-virus … and it has been a broad spread of budget and location,”
He said while vendors had tightened the reins over the past couple of months to precipitate a listings lag, homes were still transacting from entry-level abodes through to multimillion-dollar penthouses.
“I think we are going to get back to that [pre-COVID-19 strength] sooner rather than later, especially given that we had a really cracking start to the year,”
“I think we are going to see a huge flurry of stock hit the market in September for spring so we’ll finish the year strong.”
Mr McKinnon said owner-occupiers looking to upgrade or downgrade were the dominate buyer group with positivity increasing amid mounting evidence that the virus would not have the devastating effects most had feared.
“Brisbane has never really hurt as much as the other cities or states … and the market is already reflecting that,” he said.
McGrath agent AJ said their team had also seen a rise in both private and open inspections as the Brisbane market gained positive momentum that defied logic and contradicted forecasting commentary warning of a looming sales slump.
“We are still seeing shortage of stock – in fact we are down 35 per cent year-on-year – so while I wouldn’t say we are in a strong upward trend,
Brisbane seems to be more resilient than our southern counterparts. We are the pick of the three capitals,”
“I think it comes down to supply and demand relationships, the contraction of supply and the options available is part of the reason we’re seeing a stable market. Low interest rates is another. Right now, buyers are locking in fixed interest rates at 2.1 per cent and variable rates for between 2.5 and 2.7 per cent. I mean, that’s unheard of.”
While the residential market, driven by families on the hunt for lifestyle homes in good school catchments, were leading the buying charge, international investors were wading back into Australian property waters with Chinese and Hong Kong buyers beginning to pounce.
ML of Ray White agreed those international buyers were back, and said their office had only suffered a sales hit during April when COVID-19 uncertainty hit its peak. Since then, he said, sales had soared to eclipse year-on-year data.