‘Very disheartening’: Brisbane house prices soar past $1 million

It’s official: Brisbane’s property market has soared into the seven-figure club, with the median house price now topping $1 million.

A record $1,016,192 median house price was reached in the December quarter – fuelled by a $23,000 quarterly price hike – capping an extraordinary eight straight quarters of growth.

Brisbane house prices are at a record high.Credit: Dan Peled

The median unit price climbed to a record high of $632,644, following an $11,000 rise over the December quarter and cementing Brisbane’s position as the second-most expensive capital city for unit buyers, Domain’s latest House Price Report, released on Thursday, revealed.

The million-dollar milestone is a “psychological line in the sand” for Brisbane, says Dr Nicola Powell, Domain’s chief of research and economics, with the Queensland capital tipped to be one of Australia’s best-performing property markets in 2025, even as the pace of price growth cools.

“There have been so many milestones reached for Brisbane recently,” said Powell.

“Units increased by almost $100,000 in 2024 (an increase of 18.1 per cent).

“And that says so many things about affordability and demand. There will be home owners out there reaping the benefits of this, but for those aspiring home owners, when you see that citywide median hitting above $1 million it becomes very disheartening.”

The city’s typical house climbed by about $100,000 (10.9 per cent) last year, with New Farm recording a 6.7 per cent increase, bringing the premium suburb within $200,000 of the $3 million median milestone.

“The fact that we’ve now got premium suburbs like New Farm rubbing shoulders with the eastern suburbs of Sydney and even some of the elite suburbs on the Gold Coast is how you know you’ve got a perception change,” said Powell.

Ascot claimed the silver medal as Brisbane’s second-most expensive suburb, with a median house price of $2.275 million, despite a 7.1 per cent dip over the year to December. It was there that a renovated estate at 32 Sutherland Drive smashed the city’s house price record after it sold for $23 million in November.

Meanwhile, Brisbane’s unit market also made history, with Highgate Hill – the city’s quiet achiever – crowned the first seven-figure unit suburb after prices skyrocketed 48.2 per cent in just 12 months to $1,022,500, the largest surge in Brisbane.

But Powell said the overall pace of growth was slowing, with quarterly growth more than halving compared to the same period in the previous year.

“Those slower market conditions will be likely to be seen over the autumn selling season as we’ll see an increase in supply and choice. When you look at the overall level of supply, we reached the highest level in two years in December,” said Powell.

There are now five suburbs boasting a median house price of $2 million or more, including Paddington, Clayfield and Robertson.

While Highgate Hill units were the overall winner for price growth, Taigum collected the city’s highest annual rise for houses, up 41 per cent to $855,000.

Ray White New Farm principal Haesley Cush said Brisbane’s coming of age is in full swing.

“Brisbane last year had a real bounce back after a quite difficult 2022 and 2023 market … and specifically in the unit [market]. That is in line with government stimulus and this feeling that Brisbane is a really good long-term outlook,” he said.

Ben Percival, of Percival Property Group, said local and interstate buyers were keen and the inner-city apartment market was booming.

“Towards the end of last year we were absolutely firing and since the start of this one the levels of enquiry we’ve been getting are just incredible. We haven’t seen numbers like this since COVID,” he said.

“At the end of last year, we sold a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment (at 5152/66 Lamington Street) in New Farm for $1.65 million. It sold 18 months before that for $1.15 million and the owner didn’t make any changes.”

In Highgate Hill, Ray White South Brisbane’s Luke Croft said demand had scarcely wavered and there was a lack of supply.

“A basic entry level two-bedroom worker’s cottage now starts at $1.6 million there and a lot of buyers just can’t afford that,” he said.

“In the unit sector it’s being driven by young professionals but also from quite a few empty nesters downsizing from big family homes.

“Our days on market are now less than 30 and we are consistently getting multiple offers on homes. ”

In the city’s inner unit market, East Brisbane was the second-best performer, up 35.2 per cent in 12 months to $680,000.

Kylee Harnisch, of REMAX Results, said growth there was driven largely by first and second home buyers desperate to get out of the rental market.

“First home buyer incentives have driven that and there’s not a lot of stock.”