Housing Market Flooded in Brisbane, but Few Buyers

From The Courier Mail, 5 July 2008:

"STRESSED home owners and investors are flooding the market with thousands of houses but agents say they can't find any serious buyers for some properties.

As home mortgage lending in Queensland dives for the second consecutive quarter, the number of houses for sale is up 150 per cent compared with the same time last year.

There were 4750 new listings added this week - 1842 in Brisbane.

Almost 40,000 residential properties are listed for sale across the state, compared with 15,900 last year.

Auction clearance rates are suffering in the slowdown.

At yesterday's Ray White's corporate auction, just one of 11 properties was sold under the hammer. The three-bedroom unit in Casino Towers sold for $705,000.

It was a similar story last week, when 12 properties were put to market, and only one - a Norman Park home - was sold for $840,500.

The marketing agent for a prime residential site near the Brisbane River said a recent auction of the property failed to get any bids.

And the one buyer who showed some interest had now gone cold.

"Just finding anyone interested has been a problem - last year there would have been a handful," the agent said.

At yesterday's auction chief auctioneer Philip Parker said he was surprised when just two early bids were heard for an inner-city house.

"It's good real estate - you'd think you'd have more (bids) than that," he said...."