The Sunshine State Is In High Demand
Queensland’s residential property market experiences strong quarter.
Queensland’s residential property market experiences strong quarter.
Across Queensland, median house prices climbed 1.8% over the quarter with Greater Brisbane and tourism hotspots proving the most appealing.
Brisbane achieved the highest number of house sales over the quarter according to data from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ), with 3912 sales. This was followed by the Gold Coast (2,419), Moreton Bay (1,945), Sunshine Coast SD (1,510), Logan (1,413) and Ipswich (1,366).
Brisbane’s median house price rose by 4.7% over the quarter, reaching a new high of $900,000. The new figures represent a 15.5% growth compared to 12 months prior.
Despite the rise, Greater Brisbane still remains affordable with the capital city outskirts experiencing a lesser 2.8% quarterly increase to a median house price of $640,000.
Noosa was the clear stand-out with 13% growth in the quarter. However, the holiday-town couldn’t match its previous efforts of 19.8% growth in the June 2021 quarter.
Ipswich (8.7%), Redland and Fraser Coast (both at 6.5%), and Bundaberg (6.4%) followed on to round out the top five fastest-growing local government areas.
Noosa also took the top spot for the highest quarterly median sale price at $1.3 million — $400,000 above the state’s next best performer Brisbane at $900,000, Sunshine Coast SD at 850,000, Sunshine Coast at $825,000 and Gold Coast at $810,500.
It’s not only houses on the rise as Queensland’s median unit prices rose 3.5% over the quarter.
Local government areas such as Mackay (17.4%), Sunshine Coast 12.1%) and Sunshine Coast SD (11.1%) all saw double-digit growth in the quarter.
Greater Brisbane experienced moderate median unit price growth at 1.8 per cent to reach $420,000.
Coastal areas garnered the highest unit prices with Noosa ($850,000), Sunshine Coast SD ($600,000), Sunshine Coast ($560,000) and Gold Coast ($510,000) at the top of the charts.
Early indications from several big regional real-estate boards suggest March was overall another down month.
Art can transform more than just walls—it shapes mood, evokes memory, and elevates the everyday. Discover how thoughtfully curated interiors can become living expressions of personal meaning and refined luxury, from sculptural furniture to bespoke murals.
Early indications from several big regional real-estate boards suggest March was overall another down month.
OTTAWA–The nascent recovery in Canada’s housing market has become a casualty of the trade dispute with the U.S.
The latest national home-resale data are due out Tuesday, but early indications from several big regional real-estate boards suggest March was overall another down month as many prospective buyers exercised caution.
The recent weakness in home sales has dimmed the previously brighter outlook for the property market coming into 2025, when buyers were encouraged by the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest-rate cuts.
“The chills the U.S. trade war has sent through participants in the housing market are getting frostier,” said Robert Hogue , assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
Hogue said resales are down materially in a number of markets two months running, and home prices in several markets are coming under pressure as inventories rise. And although Canada was spared additional levies when President Trump unveiled so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries earlier this month, no meaningful rebound is likely so long as trade uncertainty lingers, he said.
Home buyers in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city and the country’s financial hub, aren’t turning up for the usual spring pickup in property-market activity.
Sales in the Greater Toronto Area slumped 23.1% in March from a year earlier, as new listings for the region jumped close to 29%, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. That marked the worst month of resales since 1998.
The board’s chief information officer, Jason Mercer , said many potential home buyers were likely taking a wait-and-see approach given the economic worries as well as a pending federal election. “Homebuyers need to feel their employment situation is solid before committing to monthly mortgage payments over the long term,” he said, adding that ownership has become more affordable and prices in the area fell about 3.8% year on year in March.
Uncertainty is also weighing on the housing market in Calgary, the biggest city in oil-rich Alberta. The city’s real-estate board said realtors reported a 19% drop in sales of existing homes from last year, with a similar trend of improving supply and a sharp increase in the average number of days that homes were on the market.
On the West Coast, home sales registered in the metro Vancouver area of British Columbia were the lowest for March since 2019, falling 13.4% on a year earlier and coming in close to 37% below the 10-year seasonal average, while active listings continued to rise.
There are some areas of resilience. The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers said total sales in the province were up 9% year on year in March. Still, RBC’s Hogue estimated Montreal sales in March were down about 15% from December seasonally adjusted, effectively rolling back the advance since the end of last summer.
The most recent national data for the country, from the Canadian Real Estate Association, showed resales dropped 9.8% month over month in February, when homebuyers may also have been put off by harsh winter storms in parts of the country. That marked the sharpest fall since May 2022 and brought the level of sales to their lowest level since November 2023, snapping signs that activity had been picking up in recent months.
Rishi Sondhi , an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, in a recent report estimated the country was tracking toward a double-digit quarterly decline in Canadian home sales and a mid-single-digit drop in Canadian average home prices for the first three months of 2025. That is much weaker than a pre-Trump inauguration forecast made in December that projected a loosening in federal mortgage rules, lower interest rates and continued economic growth would fuel a modest gain in sales and prices.
Central-bank officials are set to decide Wednesday on monetary policy, but they have signaled a cautious approach to rates as they balance the prospect of tariffs stoking price pressures against the likelihood that they will dampen demand and weigh on the economy. That could mean the Bank of Canada will pause after seven straight cuts to its policy rate.
Housing is a hot topic for party leaders campaigning ahead of the April 28 election, with both the incumbent Liberal Party and opposition Conservatives proposing tax cuts and incentives to encourage buyers and builders.
The outlook for new homes has also dimmed with the tariff threat. The value of residential-building permits issued in February fell 2.9% from a month prior, adding to a retreat in January that took back some of the surge in intentions in the final month of last year, Statistics Canada data last week showed.
For self-employed Australians, navigating the mortgage market can be complex—especially when income documentation doesn’t fit the standard mould. In this guide, Stephen Andrianakos, Director of Red Door Financial Group, outlines eight flexible loan structures designed to support business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. 1. Full-Doc LoanA full-doc loan is the most straightforward and competitive option for …
Continue reading “8 Home Loans Every Self-Employed Buyer Should Know About”
Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot star in an awkward live-action attempt to modernize the 1937 animated classic.