Gaythorne property attracts interest, long lines at open house

Brisbane’s property market is breaking records with hundreds of buyers queuing for up to an hour in 30C heat to inspect just one home.

Brisbane’s property boom is showing no signs of slowing with record turnouts across open homes and property experts declaring buyer interest at its highest in 20 years.

More than 200 hopeful buyers queued on Saturday for up to an hour in 30C heat to inspect just one three bedroom Brisbane home.

The first official weekend of open homes and auctions across Brisbane took property industry veterans by surprise, while the Real Estate Institute of Queensland said extremely low stock levels but massive demand for property would continue to push prices and competition up this year.

REIQ chief executive officer Antonia Mercorella said low interest rates, an active first homebuyer market and interstate migration – that is expected to increase to around 18 per cent in the next 12-18 months – was driving the spike.

The line up for an open house at 18 Lucy Street Gaythorne.

“I think we are going to see interstate migration of a kind that we’ve never seen before,” he said.

“We were already the number one destination for interstate migration, now COVID-19 had helped to accelerate that demand. We’ve heard extraordinary stories of people snapping up property sight unseen with border restrictions in place and eye-watering sales on the Sunshine and Gold coasts.

“What’s driving this is our affordability relative to Sydney and Melbourne and the liveability factor.”

Place Newmarket principal Mario Sultana turned up to the first open for inspection of 18 Lucy Street, Gaythorne yesterday to find 200 people lined up to inspect the property.

“I haven’t had an open home that busy in 19 years,” Mr Sultana said.

“Usually we have 15-20 at the first open home, but this was 98 groups so there was in excess of 200 people there.

“It was crazy, everyone from kids to grandparents. Some people had three-four people per group.

“I thought when is this going to end. My God, what’s going on with this property. I was surprised that they all waited to get through, no-one gave up and went home, they were all just very patient.”

The line up for an open house at 18 Lucy Street Gaythorne.

The three-bedroom cottage was in a sweet spot for buyers in the current market, priced under $1 million, and located close to good schools, public transport and on the fringe of the city.

“There’s a lack of stock and a lack of stock in good areas and (18 Lucy Street, Gaythorne) has all the makings of a good suburb. It’s close to the train lines, access to schooling, close to the city.”

At Camp Hill in Brisbane’s southeast, 31 registered bidders took another three-bedroom house to auction where it sold under the hammer for a record street price of $1.482 million. The property had been land-banked by the previous owner who bought it in 2018 for $1.125m.

Brisbane’s median house price has seen annual growth of 4.4 per cent to $720,000 while units have grown by 0.7 per cent to $420,000. House prices have also grown in the Greater Brisbane to $539,000 while unit prices remain unchanged at $394,500.

The Queenslander cottage at 18 Lucy St, Gaythorne, attracted huge interest from potential buyers. Picture: realestate.com.au

The three-bedroom home features a pool. Picture: realestate.com.au

The REIQ said the rental market was also under extreme stress with 40-50 people inspecting the one property.

The strength of Australia’s property market in 2021 will be tested next weekend when the Ray White Group takes a record 120 properties to auction on the Gold Coast in the largest auction event of the year.

“This is a great sign of confidence from the vendors,” Ray White Group managing director Dan White said of the record number of properties going to auction. “And it does bode well for the year ahead.

“We made $49 billion in sales for the calendar year in 2020 which was up about 13 per cent on the year before and that’s a good number considering the lockdown.”