Homes sales boost brings revival to Queensland property market

CONFIDENCE is back in the Queensland property market with home sales driving a post-GFC revival.

The Sunshine State has highest level of confidence in the country according to a survey of 2,600 construction and property professionals.

The Property Council/ANZ Property Industry Confidence Survey has predicted a 20 per cent leap in sales volumes this year.

Analysts are predicting 2014 to be the best year for property in Queensland since the GFC with real estate to sell faster and values to rise steadily.

Property Council state executive director Kathy Mac Dermott said there was a sustained surge in confidence over the past 12 months.

“In particular we have seen a dramatic shift in confidence among Queensland’s property industry over the past two surveys, driven primarily by the ongoing recovery of the residential market,” she said

“The previous quarter’s survey results exhibited first signs of a residential revival.

“During the past three months, industry’s house price growth expectations have grown to the highest levels in the country, and to historic levels for Queensland.”

Property analyst Michael Matusik said 2014 was shaping up as the best year for property in Queensland since the GFC.

However, he said, that didn’t mean the market was “hot” – just recovering.

Mr Matusik said there would be some price growth this year, but it was sales volumes that would jump.

“Sales volumes during 2014 are likely to be 15 per cent to 20 per cent higher than in 2013 across urban Queensland,” he said.

He said investors were being forced out of the southern markets by prices and south east Queensland had become a more enticing option.

The Queensland property market, southeast Queensland in particular, would follow what was happening in Sydney and Melbourne, he said.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland chief executive Anton Kardash believed a more stable political environment and certainty about employment helped improve confidence.

“We have got a reasonably stable environment that we are operating in (now),” he said.

Mr Kardash said when there was a volatile political climate like there was last year, people were less likely to make major financial decisions such as buying a home.

“We are coming out of the Christmas period and I think things are getting back to normal at the moment,” he said.

“Everything seems to say 2014 is going to be a big year.”