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Riverfront House Report 2019

In this report we turn to the waterfront housing market which consists of some of Brisbane’s most expensive and prestigious properties often attracting a price tag of several million dollars. These properties are significantly scarcer than waterfront apartments and have accounted for only 1.01% of all house sales in the region over the past 10 years. We start by analyzing performance of the housing market over the past 10 years before taking a look at where the housing market is heading in the future and finish off with the top 10 house sales for 2018.

The Median Waterfront House Price Hovers Around $3 Million!

The median price of the waterfront houses tends to fluctuate due to the overall depth of the market. Nonetheless, the median price of waterfront houses in the region has hovered around $3,000,000 over the past 10 years. As the graph below shows, this is significantly more than the non-waterfront housing market which currently rests at $925,000.

Graph 1 - Inner-Brisbane-Riverfront-House-Median-Price

Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

Most recently, the waterfront housing market median price of $2,650,000 is 2.9 times more than the non-waterfront house median price. At the peak of the differential in the December 2012 six-month period, waterfront houses were 5.4 times more expensive than the non-waterfront market. The difference can be attributed to the volatility of the waterfront market where median prices are more heavily influenced by the property sold each period.

Table 1 Inner-Brisbane-Waterfront-House-Market-Performance-Summary
Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

Proportion of Waterfront House Sales Remains Steady as Sales Volumes Decline

 Graph 2 Inner-Brisbane-Riverfront-House-Number-of-Sales

Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

In line with the wider Brisbane property market, the number of waterfront house sales has been in a gradual decline since peaking in the December 2015 six-month period (19 Sales) to record nine sales in the December 2018 six-month period or 18 sales over the past 12 months.

 Table 2 Inner-Brisbane-Waterfront-House-Market-Performance-Summary2

Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

Despite this reduction in sales volumes, waterfront houses have faired no worse than the non-waterfront housing market, still accounting for 0.92% of all house sales in the region during the December 2018 six-month period – just under the 10 year average of 1.01%.

As a whole, the housing market throughout the region has experienced only a minor decline in sales volumes compared to corresponding apartment market which declined by almost two thirds.

Graph 3 Inner-Brisbane-Waterfront-House-Sales-Proportions

Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

More Waterfront Houses Are Selling in Higher Price Brackets Despite Fluctuating Median Price

Due to the fluctuation in the waterfront median house price, actual price movements in this market are sometimes obscured. Though, by analysing the proportion of sales that occur in various price points, a deeper insight can be revealed.

Graph 4 Inner-Brisbane-Waterfront-House-Market-Sale-Price-Brackets

Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

There is a consistent trend of waterfront house sales occurring in higher price brackets over the past 10 years. In 2018, 61% of all waterfront house sales occurred in excess of $3,000,000 followed by a further 35% for over $2,000,000. In contrast to previous years, there were no waterfront sales that occurred for under $1,500,000 throughout the region highlighting the prestige of this submarket.

Graph 5 Inner-Brisbane-Non-Waterfront-House-Market-Sale-Price-Brackets

Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

Looking at the non-waterfront market, a similar trend is evident as there have been proportionally more sales in higher price brackets in 2018. However, the difference in price between the two markets is clearly evident with only 1% of non-waterfront houses selling for over $3,000,000 in 2018.

Future of the Waterfront House Market

The housing market within 5km of the Brisbane CBD has experienced only a minor decline in sales volumes and median price in recent periods compared to the corresponding apartment market. The housing market has also outperformed the apartment market over the past 10 years. These two facts highlight the market’s resilience and suggests that it will not be materially negatively affected in the short term whilst the property market navigates a difficult period and transitions to the next cycle.

The majority of new property supply that enters the market within 5km of the Brisbane CBD is predominantly apartments and as such land for houses will become scarcer and be in higher demand. In some instances, this apartment development has gentrified areas and added public amenity increasing the appeal for houses in the area as well.

The riverfront is also being developed with apartment buildings in iconic housing suburbs such as Bulimba and Hamilton further making waterfront houses even scarcer. Therefore, as the fundamentals of the local property market continue to improve and the Brisbane riverfront is gradually further developed, waterfront houses will experience increasing competition ensuring they continue to attract even higher prices in the future.

The 2018 house sales geographically, categorized by waterfront, and scaled by sale price are visible in the map below.

The map clearly shows that Brisbane’s most expensive property sales are predominantly along the riverfront in Hawthorne and Bulimba and across the river in Hamilton.

Top 10 House Sales for 2018

 Table 3 Inner-Brisbane-Top-10-House-Sales-2018

Prepared by Place Advisory. Source: PriceFinder

Waterfront houses had some stiff competition for the most expensive house sales of 2018, mostly due to several impressive houses selling in iconic Hamilton and taking out 4 of the top 10 spots. However, an impressive waterfront mansion in Hawthorne took out first place, selling for $11,128,888 which was almost $4,000,000 more than the next most expensive. Hawthorne also recorded a second waterfront house sale in the top 10 as well as Yeronga and Bulimba.

ConclUSION

We have broken down the Inner Brisbane 5km ring and analysed the performance of the housing market categorised as waterfront or non-waterfront sales. The results have shown that waterfront houses are some of the most expensive properties in Brisbane and have proportionately been selling at increasingly high levels despite obscurity in the median price due to the markets small size. Moving forward, the waterfront housing market segment is likely to be a strong performer given their extreme scarcity and prestige.

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