Bank stops overlooked ugly duckling from selling in deteriorating Brisbane market

The Brisbane home that no one will buy finally got an acceptable offer last month, but the purchaser’s finance hasn’t come through.

So the house that’s been Australia's most heavily discounted property – 1350 Wynnum Road, Tingalpa – is back on the market seeking $380,000 offers.

The modest post-war home on an 1,158-square-metre block started its listing last November with $700,000 hopes.

The deceased estate was recently under contract, but it fell over at 5pm on August 31 with the buyers unable to get finance, its LJ Hooker listing agent Janelle Randall advised.

The price discounting situation is now not unusual, as property analyst Louis Christopher of SQM Research says there’s a house in White Beach, Tasmania with an even bigger 49% discount to its initial $780,000 asking price.

Discounting remains rife across the country, many vendors being forced to accept offers far lower than they would have last year. The latest RP Data-Rismark data suggest sellers need 55 days and a 7.2% discount to find buyers.

“The owner has believed in me from day one,” Randall says.

Her sales situation was due to a combination of factors that start with it being on six-lane road.

“I could write a book about it,” she says, adding that she had been approached to have the property appear on Andrew Winter’s Selling Houses Australia Extreme.

“There have been multiple offers.

"But it's on a main road so it's always going to have its challenges and it was probably listed too high in the beginning,” Randall says.

“It’s perfect for exposure … it’s just getting the approvals for a business.

“Not everyone wants Wynnum Road.”

She didn’t mention it has a quarry behind it and an industrial estate across the road.

"Obviously it would have sold very quickly in 2009 if it had gone on at a more reasonable price.

"The current falling market has made things even worse,” Randall says.

“I know all the property in the suburb,” she says. “It’s not a premium price, but they would like to get what they want.

In June RP Data estimated the house’s value at about $394,000. RP Data says the median house price in Tingalpa was currently about $425,000

A nearby 1248 Wynnum Road two-bedroom cottage sold recently for $405,000.

The property has been a regular entrant in the SQM top 10 most discounted lists.

The original asking price was at the owner's directive.

The latest RP Data-Rismark Hedonic Home Value Index showed the value of dwellings in Brisbane dropped to a median price of $420,000, which reflects a 6.6% annual drop, the worst in the country.