Choice for sophisticated Brisbane apartment buyer slowly evaporating: Knight Frank
Queensland’s residential market has shifted from being investor-led to owner-occupiers, with first home buyers driving the trend, according to Knight Frank's Australian residential development review 2021.
“The Brisbane market is now in a position where local buyers need to re-adjust the price they expect to pay with increased competition with investors from the southern states," Knight Frank’s head of residential research, Michelle Ciesielski said.
"Over the past few years, buyers have become more sophisticated in the Brisbane market with an array of projects to choose from, but this choice is slowly evaporating," she noted.
Knight Frank Partner, investment sales agent Christian Sandstrom noted developers are finding it difficult to locate good residential sites in Brisbane, "especially as demand is increasing from buyers for high-rise apartment projects in the inner suburbs of Brisbane and soon close to the Brisbane Metro."
There have been more options for developers down in the Gold Coast and this has been demonstrated in the significant uptick in development site sales in 2020, he added.
“Both cities have seen increased population growth in the pandemic, very low residential vacancy attracting ramping up interest from both local and interstate developers.
“Sydney and Melbourne buyers can see the opportunity of compressed vacancy in the city and relative price point for what they get at home compared to a Brisbane apartment.”
The sale of Brisbane high-density sites plunged by 86% in 2020 with a diminishing pipeline of just 6,075 new apartments to be built by 2024, down from 13,850 in 2018-2020.
