Brisbane has become the third most expensive city in Australia to buy a home, leapfrogging Melbourne to sit behind Sydney and Canberra.
The Queensland capital’s median dwelling value hit $787,000 in December, $7000 higher than Melbourne’s, Corelogic data reveals.
Melbourne’s median house price is still $72,000 higher, and has units sitting at $610,122 compared to $561,016, but Brisbane has higher prices when the figures are combined, as 33.8% of Melbourne dwellings are apartments while in Brisbane units are only 25.6% of the housing stock.
Economist David Llewellyn-Smith wrote in Macrobusiness: “Melbourne is being transformed into a Third World city with its demographics determined by inflows of poor foreigners that live a dozen to the apartment.
“On the other hand, Brisbane is on the receiving end of rich southern Aussies seeking a backyard.
“Expect the price trend to continue.”
Brisbane homes have risen 50.2% since March 2020, while Melbourne dwellings went up by just 11% during a period where the city suffered through the world’s longest Covid lockdowns.
The $187,000 increase in housing values in Brisbane may be partly due to its greater appeal to remote workers resulting in increased demand for housing.
New data by PropTrack also shows median house prices relative to units in Australia’s five largest cities are either at record highs or far above the long-term average, suggesting increasingly prefer living in detached homes over apartments.
