RP Data's Quarterly Review

From RP Data's Quarterly Review for the December 2o1o Quarter, released February 2011:

Overall, the fourth quarter of 2010 has been characterised by continuing soft conditions within the residential property market whilst Australia's economic conditions are the envy of many other developed countries. For 2011 we are forecasting minimal property value growth as the market continues to transition out of the growth phase and from a market favouring the vendor to one where buyers are back in the driver's seat.

• Brisbane's capital gains have been well below the combined capital city average since the start of 2009. Compared to Brisbane's longterm and medium term gains, the last 12 months has recorded a very weak performance.
• Average discount levels currently sit at 8.6 percent for houses and 6.6 percent for units and at the same time during 2009 discount levels were recorded at 5.4 percent for houses and 4.5 percent for units.
• Houses in Brisbane are currently taking an average of 60 days to sell whilst units take 55 days. In comparison, 12 months prior houses took 40 days and units 37 days to sell.
• Of those Brisbane dwellings sold during the last year vendors had on average owned houses for 8.1 years and units for 6.4 years.
• Brisbane's population was estimated to sit at just above 2 million persons at June 2009 and has grown at 2.7 percent over the 12 months, or by an estimated 52,104 persons.
• During the last 12 months, value growth has been significantly lower than five year and ten year average levels with house values falling by 1.1 percent and unit values falling by 0.2 percent. Across the capitals, only Perth has recorded lower capital growth during the year.

• There has been an improvement in unit rentals during the last quarter, increasing by 6.9 percent whilst house rents have softened by 1.0 percent.
• With rents easing over the last year they remain well below their peak of $413/week for houses whilst unit rents are currently at an all-­‐time high.

• Gross rental yields have generally been falling since the beginning of 2009 however, there has been some recent improvement with yields recorded at 4.3 percent for houses and 5.3 percent for units.