Only a quarter of Brisbane suburbs now affordable

Only one in four suburbs across Brisbane are now “affordable”, a number which has halved in just five years – with a surprising line-up named in the Queensland capital’s top 10 liveability list.

Only one in four suburbs across Brisbane are now “affordable”, a number which has halved in just five years – with a surprising line-up named in the Queensland capital’s top 10 liveability list.

The latest PRD Affordable Liveable Property Guide warned only 27.6 per cent of suburbs across Brisbane were considered affordable – a significant 37.6 percentage point drop from 65.4pc before the pandemic in 2018.

In that time the median house price has jumped from $670,000 in 2018 to $910,000 last year – when 33.2pc were considered affordable) to $920,000 now.

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The percentage of suburbs considered affordable with good liveability scores has shrunk dramatically across Brisbane.

PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said “an affordable suburb is simply a suburb that has a median house/unit price below the metro median house/unit price”.

The analysis included not just a suburb’s median price and annual growth, but its comparison to the Brisbane median, the number of sales, rental yield, vacancy rates, housing development underway, unemployment rates and crime levels.

“A total of $5.8b of projects are planned in the first half of 2024, with many mixed-use developments aimed at increasing housing supply,” the PRD report found. “However, there is an emphasis on constructing more units (1,123), townhouses (236) and residential lots (3,663), rather than stand-alone houses (50). This suggests that the undersupply of houses will persist, further driving up housing prices.”

PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo said Brisbane houses are expected to see strong price pressure as developers focus on building more units and townhouses.

She said Brisbane was in a catch 22 situation – with local buyers worse off than before but, compared to other capital cities, better off than others.

“With houses becoming more expensive, buyers are turning to units, resulting in higher prices” there too.

Brisbane’s 10 most affordable liveable suburbs to buy houses in have seen prices rise between 1.9 per cent and 40 per cent, while still remaining as much as 25 per cent below the metro median.

Griffin topped the table for both houses (median price $720,000) and units (median price $470,000) across Brisbane.

Alexandra Hills, Strathpine, Capalaba, Daisy Hill, Richlands, Runcorn, Springwood, Taigum and Zillmere were the top results for the houses alongside Griffin.

The top 10 most affordable liveable suburbs for units were priced as low as 30 per cent below the Brisbane median – a result out of Springwood despite its 21.6pc rise in prices in the past year.

Brisbane inner suburbs such as Hawthorne are among those considered the capital’s most unaffordable.

The rest of the top picks for affordable liveable suburbs to buy units in were Richlands, Capalaba, Lutwyche, Mitchelton, Stafford, Thorneside, Windsor and Wooloowin.

The affordable and liveable guide analysed all suburbs within a 20km radius of the Brisbane CBD looking at property trends, investment criteria including rental yields and vacancy rates, affordability with prices below capital city medians, development supply and liveability elements such as crime rates, amenities, and unemployment.

The most expensive suburb in Brisbane was Teneriffe – median $3,630,000, up from $3,150,000 last year – which has some apartment stock in development. Other high flyers included New Farm ($2,600,000), Ascot ($2,400,000), Hamilton ($2,352,500), Hawthorne ($2,087,500), Bulimba ($1,840,000), Clayfield)$1,767,500), Rochedale ($1,711,000), Taringa ($1,710,000) and West End ($1,685,000), according to PRD calculations which included the most expensive suburbs which have some housing stock in development.

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