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The Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust has acquired a 1.2 hectare property at Geraldton in Western Australia from a wholesale property investor. The property adjoins an existing Bunnings Warehouse.

The $733 million residential development at Bonnyrigg in Sydney’s west has taken another step forward, with the Minister for Housing, Matt Brown, meeting local residents and inspecting new housing models.

A mixed use office and retail building with seven tenancies in Jannali, a suburb on the southern fringe of Sydney, has sold at auction to a private investor. The building’s six current tenants pay a combined gross rent of around $40,000 pa.

Mirvac Group has announced that is has exercised its right to acquire the remaining 50% stake in boutique property funds manager, Domaine Property Funds Limited. Mirvac acquired 50% of Domaine in August 2004.

Following an $81 million one week sales surge on the first stage of the Mariner’s Peninsula luxury residential project in Townsville, Mirvac has announced plans for a mixed use development in the heart of the northern city.

Things are getting pretty serious down south. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald gives a few nasty examples:

1. In 2003 a 3 bedroom home in St Clair sold for $405,000. Last weekend the owners were forced to sell it when they could no longer pay their mortgage.  The house sold after they received one bid at auction for $260,000.
2. An owner paid $257,000 three years ago for a townhouse near Penrith. Once again it was resold by mortgagees on the weekend, this time for just $156,500.
3. In 2003 a Parramatta home sold for $736,000, but was recently sold for $541,000. The former owners had a $580,000 mortgage on the home.

People obviously expected property prices to continue to rise, and were prepared to stretch themselves financially to purchase a home. With rising interest rates, and decreasing property values, a lot of people are now finding it tough to go on. It’s a really, really sad situation.

I know it hasn’t exactly been a “daily” thing here at Real Estate Daily for a couple of months. I’ve just been so busy working on other projects, such as my Ashes cricket blog, and last month my wife gave birth to our first child (who has also been keeping me quite busy). So things here at the blog have been rather quiet. Hopefully I will now have time to put some more work in to it. For those who have been waiting for something to happen, I thank you for your patience.

Last night during Channel Ten’s evening news bulletin they had a story on the real estate market in Brisbane, and noted that things are still buzzing along quite well. Craig Bullen from RealWay mentioned the $3 million sale of a home in Coorparoo, and Forest Lake was listed as one of the bargain areas that is growing rapidly (about 12 per cent a year). I wonder who took the initiative to kick start this story - Channel Ten or REIQ?
I reckon the media can be a significant influencer to property prices, so it will be interesting to see if there is further media interest in Brisbane’s real estate market. When the media is positive, prices will tend to go up.  When the media is doom and gloom, as they are in Sydney at present, the market tends to go down.

Ok, so just ignore what I’ve said previously - interest rates have gone up.
But will it have any impact on property prices here in Brisbane? Well, I’ve spoken with a couple of agents about this, and they felt that there would be no real drop in the property market. The bottom end of the market and first-home buyers may find it a little tougher, but given that rates are still very, very low when compared with other years, and that the market is only going to go up, it is still a really good time to buy.

According to the latest data from the Bureau of Statistics, Australia is divided down the middle when it comes to property prices.  Whilst the eastern states remain steady, over in WA the resources boom has seen property prices head skyward by 28.8 per cent in the past 12 months. Here in Brisbane we’ve had just a slight rise of 2.8 per cent, while Sydney continues to drop with a 3.1 per cent fall.

It’s worth noting that this data doesn’t include the effects of the interest rate rise, so we’ll have to wait another 3 months to see if that has had any impact. Some people are predicting further decreases in property prices, especially if there are more interest rate rises. Personally I don’t think so, at least in Brisbane. Things look like they’ll remain pretty steady for the next year or two. However, all you can do is keep an eye on what’s happening in the market, watch what properties are going for, and stay informed.