Brookfield, or ‘Brookie’, outperforms in real estate game

Of Brisbane’s acreage suburbs, Brookfield, or ‘Brookie’ as it's affectionately known, was the only strong real estate performer.

46 Royston St, Brookfield.

Of western Brisbane’s eight acreage suburbs Brookfield, or “Brookie” as it is known to locals, was the only strong real estate performer last year, according to new analysis, with the area’s average price rising strongly on the back of 27 transactions, up slightly on the previous year.

The $6.75m sale of the six bedroom and four bathroom 46 Royston Ave on 1ha helped lift Brookfield’s average sale price to $2.68m last year, up from $2.175m the previous year.

“Fashionable Brookfield … registered both a new single property record price of $6.75m and a new record average sale price of $2,680,555 for the year (2023) – the latter a massive 23 per cent leap over the previous set just last year,” said Josephine Johnston-Rowell of real estate agency Johnston Dixon, releasing her inaugural research into Brisbane’s acreage suburbs this week.

High-profile Brisbane property developer Don O’Rorke said much of Brookfield’s popularity stems from its proximity to the city’s CBD. Mr O’Rorke and his family live on a 10 acre Shaun Lockyer designed home in Brookfield, worth at least $15m. He notes that there are at least three other Shaun Lockyer designed houses in the suburb.

“It’s the closest acreage suburb to the CBD, from our place in Brookfield outside of the traffic it is 27 minutes drive,” said Mr O’Rorke, who is developing the Monarch Residences in Toowong.

Exterior of 46 Royston Street, Brookfield by Shaun Lockyer Architects.

“And there’s a really unique sense of community engendered through the Brookfield general store, which is (beside) a heritage listed showgrounds and is the centre of the community. There’s a pony club, there’s kids on horses, I call it the showgrounds precinct, everyone meets there. And the final thing is Brookfield’s proximity to the private schools – they are all within 30 minutes.”

But persistently low inventory has not helped much of the area, with average sales prices dropping between 2022 and 2023 in acreage suburbs including Anstead which saw prices plummet from an average sale price of $1.556m to $1.512m in 2023.

Bellbowrie recorded just nine sales in 2023 down from 14 the previous year and its average price slumped from $1.53m in 2022 to $1.504m in 2023.

While there were more sales in Moggill in 2023 compared with 2022, that did not stop its average sale price plummeting to $1.893m from $2.141m in 2022.

And Pullenvale’s sales turnover dropped 27 per cent, with 43 sales in 2022 dropping to 30 sales in 2023. Average sales prices dropped to $2.062m, down from $2.115m the previous year.

“In 2023 also, in keeping with the top end of the Brisbane property market more generally, persistently low inventory was a further key factor and one exacerbated by significantly higher net migration inflows, much of which came from interstate,” Ms Johnston-Rowell said.

However, she said vacant acreage land values continued their long unbroken upward price trend as the market edged ever closer to zero stock availability, other than the occasional infill site.

But Johnston Dixon expect the attractiveness of Brisbane’s unique near city acreage regions to continue to grow exponentially and, with that, the price one has to pay to get a slice of it.