Promising signs for capital gains in detached dwellings

THE pace of annual capital gains in Australia’s property market has bounced back to the highest level since April 2014.

Nick Clatworthy of InProperty with Rhonda Carter of Ray White Caloundra and Dan Sowden of Ray White Maroochydore. Picture: Erle Levey

THE pace of annual capital gains in Australia's property market has bounced back to the highest level since April 2014.

At the same time it is clawing back the ground to be near the highs of July 2007 and 2009 yet still short of the heady days of 2001.

The outlook for the Sunshine Coast reflects a similar pattern with median house prices already ahead of 2007 and 2009 with 5.5% growth in the past year. Yet the unit market is flatter, showing 3.5% growth in the past 12 months yet -2.7% for the five years.

At the REIQ Sunshine Coast regional lunch at Maroochy Surf Club last Thursday CoreLogic Queensland sales manager Robert Castorina said detached houses in the region were outperforming units and selling at a much faster rate.

Residential real estate underpins Australia's wealth and has reached $6.0 trillion, Mr Castorina told the lunch meeting, with an $0.8 trillion rise in the past 18months.

That is mainly Sydney and Melbourne but also Queensland with capital gains increasing 11% nationally in the past 12 months.

At the same time turnover of sales is up 2.5%, particularly in New South Wales.

Turnover of property in Queensland is up 3% in 12 months.

Sunshine Coast house prices are up 5.5% in the past 12 months from $470,000 to $496,000. That shows a lift of 3.9% in five years.

The amount discounted on asking price has dropped from 5.3% in 2010 to 4.6% in 2015.

Yet it is the average days on market for a property to sell that has shown significant change, down from 73 days five years ago to 55 in May 2015.

Units remain sluggish with 3.5% gain in 12 months yet still down 2.7% over the five years.

Median discounts for units are 4.8%, down from 5.5% and selling time at 70 days as compared to 67 days in 2010.

St George Bank business development manager Adam Baily told the meeting that Queensland's population was still growing and under-pinning the increased demand for housing.

In regard to fears of a housing bubble, he said Sydney and Melbourne were quite over the top but Brisbane was going nicely and had signs of growth.

Brisbane is under-supplied for housing whereas Victoria has massive over-supply, especially the Docklands unit market.

That is in strong comparison to Queensland where there is a healthy appetite for units.

Lending in the Queensland market for both investors and owner-occupiers is trending up.

He said investors in Queensland were in a good situation while in Sydney the financial sector is trying to reduce that.

Mr Castorina said the shortage of stock was what affected the change in the market.

He urged people in the property industry to be aware of the changes in the way the market was now operating.

Mobility is everywhere, and there was no better example than between the 2005 and 2013 crowning of the Pope. In 2005 there was hardly a mobile phone visible yet in 2013 there was a sea of them recording the event.

"Buyers are on a journey," he said. "They are doing their research first.

"Agents need to improve the value of service. Ask yourself, how do you stand out from the crowd?

"Early adopters are the best performers, they are the ones sharing information.

"Know your market, what has sold, what's available.

"Be professional, share your expertise ... understand the power of lifelong relationships.

"It's no use hiding what's happening in your area."

He urged agents to measure everything they do, not just the size of the property, but how they are performing and what property in different postcodes is doing.

"Change is not a decision, it's a process," he said.

"Be prepared to embark on the journey."

Originally published as Promising signs for capital gains in detached dwellings