No sales data in this week's Courier Mail property section! What's all that about then?
Admittedly there was a quarterly update on the Brisbane property market, but that's no excuse. I shall pack my cynicism away if the sales data page returns next week.
Never fear though. I am able to inform you that the number of properties in the Burbs and Surrounds in the $500k+ bracket has risen to 620 this week, according to realestate.com.au. This number stood at 606 last week and 598 the previous week, so the pace of listings is picking up. This is a crucial time for the market: are home-owners (and investors in particular) beginning to lose their nerve? Bear in mind that negative press about the market has only really started to become prominent in the mainstream media in the past two or three weeks.
Prior to that there had been 'rumblings', but on the whole, the market cheerleaders (Michael Matusik et al) had been doing their best to put a positive spin on things. Sadly, you can't keep the truth buried forever. According to today's quarterly update, all four suburbs (Chelmer through Corinda) failed to register enough sales (i.e. 10) in the quarter to March to record a Median measurement. Chelmer had one sale in this period.
The line being trotted out lately by our pundits and the REIQ (now that the bad news has begun to spill into the open) is that Queensland's recent disasters are to blame for the poor performance in house prices. If only. This delightful theory conveniently ignores the fact that Brisbane's property market had already been identified as the most 'vulnerable' of all Australia's capital cities at the end of 2010, with an eye-watering 60% increase in listings in the 12 months to Dec 31st (source: SQM Research).
At this point in time there appears to have been a mixed response to this weakness with vendors choosing either to withdraw their properties or hang on in there and hope. While we have seen some price reductions, they simply aren't big enough -- as evidenced by the lack of results. There is a raft of developer stock yet to come to market and these guys need to sell. Then there's all that investment property out there in the hands of an increasingly nervous investor-base .....
As anyone who works in markets will tell you: "The first cut is always the cheapest"
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