Brisbane River properties boom after 2011 floods

Brisbane claws back value of house sales after devastating floods.

Molonga Terrace, Graceville.

Premium Brisbane riverfront real estate appears to be recovering from the carnage wreaked by the 2011 floods with a record $149 million worth of mansions fronting the serpentine Brisbane River changing hands last year, up 16 per cent on the previous 12 months.

Led by the top-performing suburb of Bulimba, the average price of a Brisbane riverfront mansion jumped 6 per cent to $3.165m last year. All up, 36 absolute riverfront houses with a value of $2m or greater sold last year, compared to the 29 that sold in 2015.

However, prices are still significantly down on the 2009 and 2010 peaks when the average Brisbane riverfront house price topped $3.545m.

Agent John Johnston, of Johnston Dixon Quality Property, said riverfront house prices peaked the day before the devastating 2011 floods that wreaked frightful havoc among riverfront homes and on the prices.

“We went from a breakneck gallop to a standstill,” says Johnston, who has just launched the 2017 Brisbane River Report.

“I think the market was shocked to the core that another flood could have occurred since those in the 1970s.”

The report found the highest ­riverfront sale last year was the $8.6m forked out for 102 Virginia Avenue, Hawthorne, a five-bedroom riverfront home on more than 1200sq m.

But that sale price was significantly down on the $14m Gina Rinehart paid for her riverfront Aaron Avenue, Hawthorne, property in 2014. Rinehart later snapped up the block next door for $4m.

Although sales volumes in Hawthorne are slightly down, the suburb is still Brisbane’s most expensive riverfront precinct with an average sale price of $6.09m, just shy of its 2014 record high of $6.14m.

But there were more sales in nearby Bulimba last year, knocking Hawthorne off its ­pedestal after it had held the mantle as the top-performing river suburb for the past three years.

Bulimba recorded strong sales last year — volume was up 48 per cent over the previous corresponding period with $27.765m worth of houses sold.

Norman Park was the second-highest performing river suburb with six sales totalling $22.778m during 2016, followed by Yeronga, with $21.8m worth of sales.

The average Brisbane City premium riverfront apartment also increased marginally to an average $3.665m, while the total number of riverfront apartments sales valued at more than $2m jumped 8 per cent from 34 to 37.

Johnston Dixon agent Josephine Johnston-Rowell has on her books for $4.85m a three-bedroom penthouse at the Freshwater complex in New Farm on one of the wider parts of the Brisbane River.

Apartments in riverside New Farm traded at an average price of $3.25m slightly higher than units in Kangaroo Point, which sold on average for $3.02m, according to the report.

New Farm overtook Newstead as the most popular Brisbane ­suburb for riverside apartments recording sales of nearly $30m with four of the sales in the popular Cutter’s Landing and two in The Refinery near the Brisbane River.

However Brisbane’s most expensive apartment sale was the more than $8m paid for an apartment in Admiralty Quays, Brisbane City. The buyer of the 969sq m five-bedroom penthouse apartment was businesswoman Therese Rein and former prime minister Kevin Rudd, according to the Johnston Dixon report.

Another buyer forked out $6.2m for a four-bedroom apartment in Pier One at Newstead, while $5.7m was paid for a 392sq m apartment at the luxury Aquila complex at New Farm.

But riverside land sales fell by more than 50 per cent to just three sales valued at $4.64m last year, down from the eight sales recorded in 2015, which totalled $18.04m.

“The average land price came down from $2.255m to $1.546m, the second-lowest average since 2004, almost half the peak in 2007 of $3.007m,” according to the ­report. The number of house, vacant land and development site sales along the Brisbane River totalled $153.44m in 2016 down from the $179.425m in 2015. However, the 2015 figure included the $33.57m paid for a one-off development site.

Josephine also has several ­riverfront houses for sale, including a four-bedroom house in Longman Terrace, Chelmer, which covers three riverfront blocks or 2529sq m and has a price guide of more than $4m.

And for those who want to build their own mansion, a 1264sq m vacant block in Molonga Terrace, Graceville, will be auctioned on March 18. The block boasts a 25m frontage to the Brisbane River.