And now the real Estate show thanks to Domain, Australia's trusted property marketplace. Yeah, it's time now to find out what's happening on the property market in Sydney and Brisbane thanks to our mates at Domain. I'm pleased to say that the national Property editor at Domain, Alice Stoles, is on the line and joins me again this weekend. Hi, Alis, good morning, Luke.
Great to be with you.
I hope things are good with you. Let's kick off with where we normally do with the auction numbers and how are they looking today.
Things are good, Luke, and Sydney buyers have a lot of choice today. Nine hundred and sixty five houses are going under the hammino. This is the biggest weekend Sydney's had this month, so pretty pretty spoiled for choice. Yes, we could say Brisbane had a habit of a drop in auction numbers. That's down to seventy four auctions going under the hammer today, so probably better conditions for sellers.
Dare I say that there's not as much choice that buyers kind of get corraled into buying whatever's on the market today.
It sounds like, yeah, so how do we end up here because I think you might have even flagged this last week. Big numbers in Sydney not so in Brisbane. I mean, they're both beautiful cities in Australia. What's the difference, do you think?
Yeah, well, a lot of it's because obviously interest rates sort of play a part in this. But these are obviously been booked in these campaigns sort of five six weeks ago. And I think we know that the seasonality of the Brisbane market is quite different from the Sydney market.
Auctions basically start the year there quite quickly and quite early in January, whereas the Sydney market a bit more Laxadasians that it takes a while to warm up, shall we say, and auctions really kick off there in February. So what we find is it into the winter month. Sydney kind of lasts a little bit longer before it tapers down into that winter hiatus, but Brisbane's pretty much already into that lower gear, it seems.
Gotcha all right, clearance raked from last week.
Well, Sydney had a big weekend and it came in at seventy percent, And I mean, I'm not sure if you and the listeners looked around town, but we saw lots of bidding at auction, Luke and I really think we noticed that sort of I guess a bit more confidence from buyers to sort of stretch a little bit further. And I'm not talking about crazy, crazy amounts, but I just saw quite a few options whether that competition remained
very tight to the very end. So I think the Sydney market seems to be responding very well to that interest rate cut. Brisbane's clearance right coming at forty three percent, which was consistent week on week. Obviously a less auction centric market, but it's interesting watching that market in Brisbane just kind of get their head around auctions a bit more, and we're seeing more and more. I guess sellers choose that method.
Of saleh Alright, our expensive buyers from last week in Brisbane at Sunny Banking, Sydney Elizabeth Bay.
Yeah, it was a home in a Sunny Bank that sold for one point eight five million dollars in Brisbane, a five bedroom home with a granny flat. Now we know how much value granny flats add. People love the thought of them, whether it's for their home office, whether they let it out for short term accommodation or put a kid adult in. It always strikes a lot of desirability with people. And in Sydney it was Elizabeth Bay.
An apartment there sold for six point four to five million dollars with beautiful views over the harbor and all the bells and whistles that one can imagine from a property that sort of manages to get a figure like that. Six point four to five minute not bad?
Is it not bad? Three bedrooms, had two bathrooms and a car space and an apartment Elizabeth Bay six and a half million if you don't mind. What about value there was that seems extraordinary value at Paddington in Sydney.
Yeah, I love his story. So it's a little studio flat that's sold in glen View Street, Paddington that's sold for four hundred and seventy nine thousand dollars. Now, as I said, it is just a studio, so it's not even a standalone one bedroom unit. But it does have parking on site, but you can't let it out, so it's not attached to the title. There is parking for residents.
And I thought, what a wonderful story that we're on the say, sort of second floor Deco style brick apartment sold for sort of a figure that is kind of you know, imaginable for some first time buys in particular, and I think it's a good example of ways that people can get onto the market. And maybe they won't
live in that place forever, Lou. Clearly they're probably going to outgrow it if they have a family or want some more space in the future, but it could be a good little investment for someone to think about options like that, given it was under five hundred thousand dollars, which is well and truly below the meeting in Sydney.
And have Paddington on your on your business card, I live in Paddington. I have to tell them anything else, yees. So you were going to tell me about Brisbane.
Yeah, it was. We had a house I went to market in Pekember. Now, this five bedroom house sold for seven hundred and forty thousand dollars. So what we're really seeing is that affordability in Brisbane that people are I guess just going further out to get bang for their buck, because really, in most it is in Australia wouldn't find a five bedroom house for that price. So clearly people driven by price primarily are going that a little bit
further out and they're getting what they want. And in this case it was a five bedroom, two bar, four car house for seven hundred and forty thousand dollars.
Jeez, Now tell me about domain sustainability and probably report it's revealed that energy efficient homes are not only fetching premium prices, but and how high on the wish list. I guess the cost of living is so crippling for many that if you can get a place where you don't have to spend almost a mortgage repayment on your power bills, then it's a big tick.
Yes, I think energy efficient homes are sort of the gift that keeps on giving in that you can reduce the power bills. But what we are also seeing in the data is that when it comes to selling it, you will make a premium on it. In Sydney alone, energy efficient houses sold for twelve and a half percent on average more than non energy efficient homes and that's around one hundred and eighty thousand dollars extra. Now in
Brisbane it wasn't as extreme as that. They're selling for a four ten point one percent more one hundred and twenty k more than non energy efficient houses. But what we're seeing is I think this, you know what did
appear a very niche sustainable housing and energy efficiency. And remember when solar panels were kind of rare and now increasingly becoming sort of a compulsory feature for many people when it comes to buying their house, and they want it for the saving that they get through those energy bills, and they're also wanting i think, to obviously help the planet, but also knowing they're going to make that money back
when it comes time as selling. So you know, for a lot of people, it is that initial outcost of whether it's double glazing the windows, you know, changing the orientation of a house when you're designing it, if you are doing it from scratch to have a northern orientation, making really energy efficient heating choices, they can obviously cost more in the beginning, but it seems the rewards are well and truly being met as the house grows in value down the track.
Now we can buy an island, is that what you're suggesting?
I mean, how often do I get to say that there is an island for sale off Northern Queensland. It's three k's off Cape Palmerston National Park, which is sixty k southeast of Mackay. Now, this is a forty nine point seven hectare island and on this island is a three bedroom house. Now the house is owned by two families and one of the families are selling out their share and with that house you get the island. It's quite extraordinary. And this is the only house on the island.
And it's got a little air strip so you can ride it on your own little private private plane if you don't mind, or a ten minute boat. A ten minute boat trip from the coast. Now, this is apparently absolutely spectacular. You can go snort clean are on those beautiful waters, the coral reefs are there, and pristine bushland to explore. But it's on the market for six hundred
thousand dollars. Wow, I just think and I'm sort of watching if other than media around the world picking this story up, because as someone mentioned, it's the fraction of a car. It's basically what you pay for a parking spot in Sydney.
Sometimes you can you know, if uber eads deliver, I don't know, but.
Funny you should ask that, Luke, because I had to laugh at the listing. It's said that the island does have coverage for Optus and Telstra mobile phones, and I just put that such a sign of the times, isn't it. You could be stuck with you Uber eats or a door dash. I'm not sure they're going to get milk delivered on your doorsteps. I think I think you'd have a lot of probably fishing to do, and you know, a lot of seafood to live off pretty happily there.
I don't think you'd be I don't think you'd be many complaints coming from you on a place like that.
I think you're right. I think you're right. How wonderful is that? All right, we'll take a break back with more from Alice and Justic sec and we are joined by Alice Stoles from Domain, the National Property Editor. Alice, the rise of pre fab homes. This is interesting, isn't it? Could prefab homes be a large solution to our large housing crisis? What do you think?
Look, look, I'm a real fan of this notion of prefab homes, and it's because basically they can deliver houses much faster than the traditional methods of construction, which we know we've experienced over the past few years, in particular incredible challenges around that. It also means that there's no delays attributed to weather because basically all the hard worker building the home is un in a factory than that house sort of slubs of it are put on trucks
and trucks around the country. Now, the benefit is homeowners can also have bespoke called truly sort of custom designed houses and have kind of quite clever and ingenious design and have that individuality to a house that often people obviously enjoy, particularly in Australia, and do all that in record time. Now it also usually can come in at a cheaper cost because materials are used so much more effectively, there's no wastage, and there's also no delays to weather,
but just in terms of how quickly they arrive. I was reading an article and I always laugh at this, and I've seen it happen myself. But literally you'll see a neighbor will go off to work as a blank piece of land. They come back and there's a house on it. Now, all the groundwork has been done for months prior. I'm not saying it's click your fingers and
it's delivered. That evening. But that's how quickly it's construction constructed on site, because everything is done off site and then it's literally just trucked in and ascend and it's basically almost ready to go at that point.
Yeah, it's amazing. Now. Properties of interest which I haven't had time for, I'm sorry, one at North Bridge and one at Cadanga Creek in Queensland. In Queensland, it's an eight better if you don't mind, will put links to the on the podcast. To those listings. There's three living spaces, eight bedrooms, the one in Queensland. Properties of Interest. Thanks Alice, I'll talk to you next week. That's Alice Stoles from domain