Ray White Queensland ends spring on a high

The auction event showed the strength of the south-east Queensland market as an audience of more than 202 bidders competed for the 81 properties on offer through 19 Ray White offices. Properties ranged from apartments, family homes, developments and commercial listings. There were a massive 2,000 people tuning in from all over the country to the auction event’s livestream, along with some viewing from as far away as Hong Kong, China, Dubai and New Zealand.

The top sale of the day was 67 Macaulay Street, Coorparoo (pictured below) which sold for $1.9 million through Ray White Mt Gravatt sales agent Tony Langanis, showing the southside of Brisbane is becoming increasingly desirable to buyers. Meanwhile, Andrew Cowan of Ray White Alderley had the second highest sales of the day with 33 Cheviot St, Grange which sold for $1.735 million.

Ray White Queensland CEO Jason Andrew said the clear urgency which traditionally characterises the market at year's end; with buyers and sellers eager to transact before the close, was not quite what it had been previously.

“This year marks 100 years of Ray White selling homes in Brisbane, we have a rich history of auction success in the sunshine state which we continued today,” Mr Andrew said.

“Today is a clear demonstration of our intentions now and into the future, it shows a commitment to the auction method which was begun by Ray himself 122 years ago.

“We have rounded out spring by presenting 110 properties across two events to auction today, including the Ray White Collective event later tonight.

“There is an element of patchiness, with sellers who listen to the feedback throughout their campaigns rewarded. ”

Ray White Queensland chief auctioneer Gavin Croft said the standout of the day was the apartment market.

“Today’s sales were impressive right across the apartment market. The clearance rate for apartment stock was around 75 per cent so it was very strong,” Mr Croft said.

“Affordability is playing a real role right now. We haven’t seen one bedroom apartments be the flavour of the month before but everything we had today had a high number of registered bidders, sold well and had competitive bidding.

“Double blocks also sold well, everything on a double block like 67 Macaulay St, Coorparoo had such a huge appeal for people who saw the option to split them later.

“It was great to see 19 of our offices coming together to collaborate and make the day a success, showing the strength of the Ray White Group in Queensland.”

After the last hammer fall, Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee (pictured above) hosted a Brisbane property market information session. Ms Conisbee said the property market outlook in Brisbane was strong, which was evident through the auction event today.

“There has been a slow down in the market across Australia but it means different things in different markets. It’s still very strong here,” Ms Conisbee said.

“Brisbane house prices are up 11.3 per cent over the past 12 months. But we are seeing apartments increase faster than houses.

“In Brisbane, we’re seeing apartments move more quickly. Part of it is apartments in Brisbane tend to be bigger and nicer. It’s led to quite an elevation in apartment prices."

Ms Conisbee also cited population growth as another factor affecting the Queensland property market.

“Queensland is dominating population growth. There were close to 500,000 additional people who moved to Queensland and 340,000 to Brisbane which is the fastest growing capital city in terms of number of people,” she said.

“Population movement from Sydney and Melbourne to regional Queensland remains elevated. And in fact, the Gold Coast saw the highest increase in population last year.

“In Brisbane, we are well and truly at a peak and that peak looks like it still has legs so it will continue for some time. Regional Queensland is a similar story, Townsville is topping the list and is now the fastest growing regional area in terms of house price growth in the state.

“When interest rates are cut, it will bring more heat into the market, but fundamentally there are a few other things, it's not just about rates but also housing supply, Queensland needed around 54,000 homes but there was only 41,700 built. It’s happening all around Australia, except Canberra."

Michael and Rebecca (pictured above) won a quick bidding battle with the purchase of a property in Grange from Ray White Alderley principal Andrew Cowen. Michael said they currently have a two year old property they live in on the same street and will be building a brand new home for the family to settle down in.

“We have a third baby on the way in December which is super exciting, there’s a lot of activity on the street so after the house is complete, we might sell it or we might rent it. Just see how it plays out,” he said.

Ray White Wilston Elite agent Holly Bowden successfully sold 3/36 McCord Street, Gordon Park for $700,000 on behalf of her seller Rob (pictured above with Ms Bowden) who is offloading an investment in preparation for his retirement. Rob, a builder, said he had held the property as an investment for 20 years.

Buyer’s agents Andrew and Natalina Di Pietro (pictured above) from Empire Buyers Agents successfully secured an apartment from Ray White West End’s Ethan Petrie for their buyer who couldn’t be at the event today. Ms Di Pietro said there was value in employing a buyer’s agent in the current highly competitive Brisbane market.

“We knew our seller’s budget and we’ve done our market research. We know what the property is worth. We know what all the recent sales are around the property so we knew how far we could actually go,” she said.

“I think it’s really important to know your budget, know what the properties are worth in that area, in our particular case, it’s an apartment so we knew what recent sales were in that apartment block, so we compared others that sold nearby that may have had a better outlook.”

Principal at Ray White Bribie Island, Bryce Hawkins has made auction his team’s (pictured above) point of difference in their market. Mr Hawkins said they are one of 86 other agencies on Bribie Island which is the main reason he wants to implement the auction strategy.

“No one else is pitching auctions because they say it doesn’t work on Bribie. It takes a professional team to run them properly and we want to make this a big pitch to clients because auction shouldn’t be the last option in a campaign,” he said.

“We wanted to attend today to see how these types of events run in the city, it also gives us a bit of focus on the Bribie Island area. It’s hard to get a spotlight on the area sometimes so having buyers online seeing these properties is great.”