Brisbane’s inner city precinct will be the strongest performing sector in the Queensland capital’s property market in coming years, according to SPACE Property.
SPACE Property Managing Director Nick Penklis said the suburbs up to 10 kilometres from the CBD would always be the ones highest in demand, with an increasingly wider demographic looking to buy, including families.
“As an agency, the inner city has always been our focal point, and we have established a strong presence in the city’s inner west with our office in Paddington and new offices in Toowong and Ashgrove,” Mr Penklis said.
“These areas offer everything buyers want, with a great lifestyle, plenty of amenity including transport, and sought-after school catchment areas.”
SPACE Property also has an office in South Brisbane, and in recent months they’ve more than doubled their presence in Brisbane’s inner city, with the addition of three new offices – Toowong, Projects and Ashgrove.
The principal of the new SPACE Toowong office is Gabrielle Trickey, while SPACE Projects is headed up by Adam Gray and the SPACE Ashgrove principal is Michael Shean.
Mr Penklis said over the next 12 to 24 months they would look to add at least another five office to their stable, focusing on areas where they forsee growth in the short to medium term, such as Indooroopilly, Fortitude Valley, East Brisbane, Annerley, Alderley, Wilston and Ascot.
“Since plenty of growth has already occurred in the inner city with values edging higher, it might make sense that there would be stronger growth in Brisbane’s outer areas, however there is a wider range of buyers now wanting to get into the inner city, contributing to higher than ever demand levels,” said Mr Penklis.
“We know many young professionals and empty-nesters want to live in the inner city, but since we started selling property in Brisbane 16 years ago, the biggest change we have seen is that there are more families wanting to live in the inner city too, rather than moving to the middle-ring suburbs, as they once did.
“The family buyer factor is growing, with education, lifestyle and convenience underpinning the demand, particularly with traffic congestion continuing to worsen in Brisbane leading to longer and more expensive commutes.”
“They often buy cottages to raise the house, or add an extra bedroom to accommodate a growing family.
“It has been an enormous shift in demographics in the market; I’d say the number of family buyers has at least tripled over the past decade.”
Mr Penklis said activity in the Brisbane market had picked up significantly since the Federal Election, and would only strengthen further due to the city’s fundamentals.
“Confidence has absolutely returned to the market; we have seen at least a 25 per cent rise in turnouts at open homes for both sales and rentals,” he said.
“Brisbane’s future will be underpinned by the amazing infrastructure in the pipeline. Once all the promised infrastructure comes out of the ground, the city’s lifestyle will change for the better fairly quickly.”
Mr Penklis said that with steady and consistent growth without the fluctuations of southern markets, Brisbane was a safe bet for buyers.
“Brisbanites have always been a conservative bunch, and the city has a difference pace to Sydney, so I don’t think future growth will be explosive, but there could be a cultural change that sees buyers take action more quickly and extend their budgets further,” he predicted.
“Land prices are continuing to rise and it’s not getting any cheaper to build, so it’s no use for buyers to sit on the fence and waiting for something to drop, as it’s not going to happen. The only way it will go is up.”
