A recent article in the Courier Mail byNatalie Gregg dated 3 October 2009 speaks of positive signs continuing in Real Estate in Queensland.
The Article goes onto to say “Residenial real estate sales are powering along. More than 30,000 eager Queensland buyers took advantage of the boosted grant, with the number of first home buyers peaking at 3900 in June this year.”
“This week the boosted First Home Owners Grant dropped from $21,000 to $14,000 for new homes and from $14,000 to $10,500 for existing houses. It returns to $7000 on December 31.”
There is optimisn about the Queensland real estate market, given recent sales growth and a positive start to the spring selling season.
“The Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s preliminary data shows the number of properties sold in the June quarter jumped 28.4 per cent in Brisbane. On the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, they were up about 17 per cent. With the increased volume of sales, property prices also began to rise. Median house prices in Brisbane increased by 3.3 per cent to $480,000 in the June quarter.”
“REIQ managing director Dan Molloy said better-than-expected job figures, record low interest rates and growing consumer confidence were driving the market. “The volume of sales for the 12 month period to the end of June was slightly less than the previous year,” Mr Molloy said.”
“Figures from RP Data show Brisbane houses are selling in an average of 33 days this year, compared with 48 days last year. Discounting was down from 8.2 per cent to 5.8 per cent.”
It was noted the wind-back of first home owners was being replaced by investors and upgraders. Any fallout from the first home buyers is going to be hidden in the fact that naturally the numbers are much higher anyway.
It is believed by some that share traders who had abandoned the stockmarket were beginning to put their money into “bricks and mortar” investments.
