SEQ Land Market Attracting More Interstate Interest

SEQ Land Market Attracting More Interstate Interest

The South East Queensland land market is well positioned to strengthen from interstate and overseas demand due to diminishing affordability in Sydney and Melbourne, according to research by Ray White Commercial.

Ray White Commercial’s Between the Lines – East Coast Residential Land Market August 2017 report highlights the strength of the residential land market on Australia’s eastern seaboard over the past three years with Queensland now well positioned in relation to the southern states.

Ray White Special Projects Qld Directors Mark Creevey and Tony Williams said SEQ has shown a consistency of growth over the period with a steady increase in land values while Sydney and Melbourne have shown much sharper increases in part due to substantially stronger population growth.

Mark Creevey said Melbourne’s median land price overtook SEQ for the first time in the March quarter of 2017 despite record high sales volumes in SEQ.

“SEQ’s median price of $266,052 is now more than $20,000 below the Melbourne rate of $287,565 while Sydney prices are more than double SEQ’s,” he said.

“We are certainly receiving higher levels of enquiry from interstate and off-shore groups in respect to SEQ land development opportunities because of the opportunity and affordability of the market compared to the southern states.

“Popular commentary from the Melbourne market suggests that the median price for land is set to reach $300,000 by the end of 2017 further highlighting SEQ’s affordability advantage.”

Tony Williams said continued record low interest rates, first home buyer grants and stamp duty discounts for new house and land products has resulted in an increase in demand across the eastern seaboard.

“SEQ has to date remained relatively affordable with median prices seeing little movement as lot sizes continue to shrink,” he said.

“Volumes have remained consistent with growing demand in Brisbane’s outer northern and southern corridors as well as in the Brisbane metropolitan area and Ipswich and the western corridor.

Tony Williams said in the year to March 2017 there was a record 10,511 residential land sales in SEQ, which was up 2.84 per cent on the previous year.

“Three-year average annual sales were recorded at 10,372 which is well ahead of the longer term 15-year average of 5,756 per annum,” he said.

“The Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast regions have driven this increase together with continued demand in the Brisbane and Ipswich areas.”

Tony Williams said historically affordability pressures in Sydney had seen a corresponding increase in interstate migration to Queensland. This has been evidenced by an almost 50 per cent increase over the past year.

“With expectations that this interstate migration will continue to increase we anticipate that demand for residential development sites will remain high to cater for the increase in demand for land ,” he said.