Courier Mail: 7 September 2008

Home buyers are being urged to move quickly, with house prices across Queensland defying predictions of big drops and poised to take off again on the back of cuts to interest rates and stamp duty.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland figures for the June quarter, released today, show the industry weathered the effects of interest rate rises and big petrol price increase.

Median prices were steady across most of the state for the three months. Some areas including the Gold and Sunshine coasts, Townsville and Macky – registered falls, but Brisbane, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and Redland continued to grow.

A 1 per cent rise in Brisbane took the median price to $495,000 for the quarter, overtaking the Gold Coast which had a 2.4 per cent dip to $490,000.

“These results fly in the face of some commentators who had predicted doom and gloom and substantial price drops for property markets across the country,” REIQ chairman Peter McGrath said.

“Brisbane, particularly was an extremely pleasant surprise. “Considering what the consumer had to go through during that quarter – two interest rate rises and the filtering down of earlier interest increases, massive spikes in petrol prices and general negativity about the economy – the market has shown a lot of resilience.

“It’s set a very important platform for the market to ease forward later this year as interest rates begin to come down.

The message is simple the market has bottomed in real terms, interest rates have stabilised. So if people have the financial capacity to enter the market, now is the time to start looking to go forward.”

In southeast Queensland, the median house price for Ipswich was up 1.6 per cent to $32,000, Moreton Bay rose 0.7per cent to $379,000, Redland was $450,000 (up 0.2 per cent) and the Sunshine Coast dipped 1.2 per cent to $464,500.

The Whitsundays was the strongest regional centre in the quarter, with median prices