Australia Will Be Hottest Property Market In 2022

More jobs, more interstate migrants and the 10-year insurance policy of hosting the world’s biggest sporting event will send South East Queensland property prices to record heights next year, industry experts say, with the current housing boom tipped to burn into the early months of 2022. Despite an astonishing year of price hikes that saw median house prices rise by up to AUD 2400 a day in some Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast suburbs, a decade of catching up for lost time coupled with a tidal wave of southern migration is predicted to keep the real estate revival in motion, with the re-opening of international borders expected to soften the blow of future interest rate hikes. Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell said, out of all the capital cities, Brisbane would be the one to watch in 2022, with the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast markets also firing at a velocity that was simply too fast to falter in the near future. “What we’ve seen is much stronger rates of growth in Brisbane than Sydney and what we’ve got – particularly in South East Queensland – has been this shift in migration and that adds to the fact that it offers lifestyle and job prospects as well as the Olympics (in 2032) and all the infrastructure projects that are being completed,” Dr Powell said. “That’s going to continue to put demand on housing, particularly when you put it on the backdrop of the fact that house price growth has gone sideways for a number of years. “Brisbane has under-performed compared to other capitals, so there’s more room for growth. And it hasn’t had a massive upswing, so there’s still strong growth to come.” According to Domain’s latest House Price Report – for the September quarter – Brisbane house prices climbed almost AUD 30,000 in three months to a record high of AUD 702,455, a figure that’s still almost AUD 300,000 shy of the combined median house price for the nation’s capitals and close to AUD 800,000 less than Sydney’s median house price. While Sunshine Coast median house prices outperformed the capital – leaping to AUD 875,000 over the quarter – Dr Powell said the sheer ferocity of buyer appetite for the coastal hot spot indicated the upward trend would continue. “There’s still some steam there – more so than the Gold Coast – and we’ve had four really robust quarters back-to-back (on the Sunshine Coast),” she said. “At the start of the year we saw nine per cent house price growth in a quarter, which is a phenomenal rate of growth,” she said. “But affordability will also be affecting buyers now and that will take away some of the demand. That said, some out-of-state buyers will see these prices as affordable when you look at the Sydney median.