Andrew Bell Market Wrap: Queensland wins in other ways

Issue 14 | Thursday 15 July 2021 | Queensland wins in other ways

Hi, Andrew Bell here with you and as we are now into the new financial year lots of stats and figures will undoubtedly come out shortly.

One stat I thought you might find of interest is that Queensland now leads the country in the number of real estate transactions to June 2021. Property transactions surged to record levels across all the eastern states in particular in the last 12-months, with Queensland seeing a jump of 37 per cent in the number of real estate settlements during the financial year, coming in at 203,000.

NSW settlements climbed by 26 per cent to 218,000 and in Victoria they rose by just 11 per cent to 198,000.

Queensland also posted the strongest growth in the total value of transactions, racking up a 44 per cent rise to $106 billion. NSW recorded just a 27 per cent rise and Victoria rose a modest 8 per cent.

Those stats are pretty amazing when you consider Queensland has lower property prices than Sydney and Melbourne, which is part of the reason why we have seen this move from the southern states. The rise in real estate prices in both Sydney and Melbourne means property is becoming more and more unaffordable there.

This unsurprisingly ties into the fact that the Gold Coast was the most popular destination amongst “metro-movers” fleeing capital cities during the March quarter.

As more Australians look to escape the expense and stress of city life, not to mention COVID-19, Regional Australian Institute and Commonwealth Bank have released fresh data showing regional migration rose 7 per cent in the March quarter from the year prior.

The significance of this report is that it is not old data. One of the first things that a migrator does is notify their bank of a change of address, and so this is telling us the most recent information about migrators. It comes from a database of 10 million people, and it is where they track people who have been in the same location for at least 6 months. This trend of migration from the south to the north, and to regional areas along the eastern seaboard, wasn’t just a flash in the pan and it has maintained in constant and somewhat accelerating volumes. Every time someone moves to an area such as the Gold Coast, they tend to attract other family members and friends, which creates the multiplier effect.

A third bit of information I thought you would be fascinated by is that households throughout Australia added more than $500 billion to their wealth over the first three months of the year thanks to the booming property market, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Total household wealth rose 4.3 per cent to $12.6 trillion in the March quarter; driving per capita wealth to a record high of $492,000 per person.

Household wealth in the year to March increased by 15.3 per cent in total, and, amazingly, despite all the buying that has been going on, Australians also built up large savings reserves, which is a great buffer for any change in market conditions but it also means there is potential for increased spending.

Fascinating times to say the least and we enter the new financial year on really solid grounds, and with the Gold Coast never looking in a better position.

I thought I should also reach out because I am astounded by the rate at which Gold Coasters are booking to be part of this year’s Ray White Surfers Paradise Muscular Dystrophy Ball. Well over 600 people have booked in the first three weeks since the Saturday 11 September date was released, and people have been saying that they just really want to get out and socialise with friends and family once again and do something positive for the community. If you would like to join them by either organising a table of 10 or just coming along as a party of 2, 4 or 6, more information can be found via the details shown on screen now. We only have limited space available so contact us today.

I am certainly hoping that everyone has managed through these most recent difficult times with restrictions and lockdowns. We are halfway through the winter season and not far off from spring, so looking forward to happier days in the not too distant future.

Warm Regards,

Andrew Bell, OAM
Chief Executive Officer
The Ray White Surfers Paradise Group

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