Crunching the figures

No doubt you’ve heard about the latest RP Data figures showing a whopping 62% increase in Brisbane listings compared to this time last year. Just to put those figures in perspective, Sydney recorded a 0.8% increase and Perth 2.4%. Obviously Brisbane is booming, but what I would also attribute this difference to, as I explained to both the Courier-Mail and Seven Nightly News last weekend, is the fact that new developments are now being advertised in a very different manner to the way they were 12 months ago. Let me explain. Brisbane is flush with new developments in order to keep pace with rapid population growth. Many of these are now being listed as individual lots rather than single developments (partly because this better marries with modern search engine technology and partly because developers know that they stand a good chance of selling each listing even before it has a house on it). For example, 12 months ago developers might have advertised their new 200-block project as ‘Project A’. Now they're listing each block of dirt under a separate title – that’s 200 new listings, not just one. It would explain why there are currently 126 properties presently available in Moggill (according to http://www.realestate.com.au/), not a dozen as there was this time last year. This shift in the way properties are categorised has quite possibly inflated Brisbane’s listing rate in recent times, and I think it’s an important factor to take into account because to put all the current market activity down to an interest rate reaction is to miss the fact that the southern states are not displaying anywhere near the same level of activity. That said, the SEQ market is still clearly booming – certainly we’ve got considerably more on our books than at this time last year – but supply and demand are still reliable tools and should ensure that people pay what homes are really worth.