Sales down 56% in flood-affected Brisbane suburbs: RP Data
The median house values of some flood-affected Brisbane suburbs have edged higher than they were before the floods in December, according to RP Data, but prices in most affected suburbs have fallen.
The survey looked at the automated values of 7939 inundated and 10,334 partially inundated properties worth $12.53 billion in Fairfield, Rocklea, Graceville, South Brisbane, St Lucia, Chelmer, West End, Auchenflower, New Farm and Kangaroo Point.
Fairfield and Rocklea showed the biggest overall drop in values, down 9.4%.
Values in the inner-city suburbs New Farm and Kangaroo Point increased marginally by 0.4%.
At the same time values in non-flooded suburbs dropped overall by 1.5%, according to RP Data's head of research Tim Lawless.
Sales volumes have dropped dramatically in both flood-affected and non-flood-affected suburbs.
In the flood-affected suburbs there was a 56% decline in sales in March 2011, compared with March 2010.
Sales also slowed in non-flooded suburbs, dropping 43%.
Lawless stresses the lack of sales data means it is too soon to adequately reflect new values.
“Another factor muddying the waters is the fact that the Brisbane housing market as a whole is quite weak – and this was the case well and truly before January 2011,” Lawless told Quest Community Newspapers.
The real fallout seems to be a low volume of sales rather than a serious fall in values, although the true value change post floods is yet to be seen, Lawless says.
He says the market is still correcting from a period of spectacular growth.
“Brisbane has been such a weak performer [since about June last year] due to the fact it was such a strong performer prior to 2008,” Lawless says.
“The softness in the market for Brisbane was a relatively new phenomenon during 2008. Brisbane had been such a strong performer really since 2002.”
Brisbane house values peaked in May last year at $450,000, Lawless says, before starting to slide in June.
Ray White Queensland chief executive Peter Camphin says top-end Brisbane houses have been discounted by about 15% since the beginning of the year, with riverfront properties the hardest hit since the January floods.
In March, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland said 17 of 50 flood-affected suburbs recorded too few sales to allow a median house price to be calculated.
