Prices of residential land have gone up to record levels with average house block prices proving to be a major obstacle for buyers. However, the trend is being bucked by Brisbane. As per latest reports, prices for a regular vacant land parcel for housing has gone up by more than 9% in Australia in the year till March, 2017. The average price now stands at $253, 525 which has sparked demands for the release of more land for taking care of this affordability crisis in the housing market.
Brisbane, however, has better developments in store for buyers. The average price in the residential land segment stands at $245,000 here which is 3.6% lower in comparison to the prices witnessed in 2016’s first quarter. Experts state that residential land is touching slightly more reasonable levels in Brisbane while other cities were slowly becoming absolutely unaffordable. Experts also believe that the huge apartments volumes over the last few years could lead to absorption of the demand for land parcels for housing in Brisbane.
A mini-slowdown is being observed in terms of the land lots available in Brisbane and this is indicative of slightly lower demand. The Sunshine Coast now has the most expensive land in the state as per reports and is the costliest regional market in the country as well. Median prices have touched $278,750 based on the sales notched up in the quarter till March. The median price in the Gold Coast is at $243,400 in comparison. The average block of land in Brisbane is now sized at 475.5 sq. metres in comparison to 605 sq. metres around a decade back.
More than 3,500 residential lots were purchased in the March quarter which is a decline of 1.3% as compared to the earlier quarter and 5.1% lower in comparison to the same period in the last year. Land sales have gone up in Darling Downs and the West Moreton region. 27% lower land transactions were observed in the Sunshine Coast with Gold Coast following with 25.3% lower transactions.
