Entry level houses in Brisbane’s inner south thrive while the mid-range suffers

If houses sat on shelves, those priced from $650,000 to $950,000 would be flying off them, inner-south Brisbane agents say.

Their area is seeing a surge in demand for older houses in that price range as buyers shun fully renovated, more expensive properties.

LJ Hooker Coorparoo agent Cameron Woods said the trend came from a desire of buyers to make a family home exactly how they wanted it.

“They want to put their own mark on it,” he said. “They also what the size of the land and the street.”

Mr Woods said the properties were selling so well, he could still achieve good sale prices in off market sales.

His latest success story was 60 Wills Street, Coorparoo, an older renovator, which he sold off market for $830,000.

Cameron had one ask from his vendor: sell it for more than $800,000. So he set about calling dozens of people he knew were already waiting for their chance to buy in the area.

Even though the investment property was tenanted, it only took him three days.

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“Listed on a Thursday, sold on a Sunday,” Mr Woods said. “Started calling straight away all my database. I had interest in the property straight away.

“I lined up with the tenants and the other agency to get an inspection sorted for Saturday afternoon and the offer came through on 10am Sunday morning.”

The offer was accepted that night and 60 Wills Street sold.

Ray White New Farm‘s Philip Harrigan said he was seeing similar trends, particularly in the Coorparoo market.

“It’s interesting to see what people want,” he said. “They say: ‘we prefer it to be unrenovated so we can buy it and spend what we want on it to make it our own.”

Mr Harrigan is currently marketing 4 Rossmore Avenue in Coorparoo, and he said there had been huge interest in the half-renovated property.

“We had in excess of 23, 24 people through that front door with the first two sets of inspections.”

Mr Harrigan said he had noticed a slump in properties priced past $950,000 too. He put it down to buyers past that point being a bit pickier with their money.

“A lot of what I’m seeing is people say we don’t agree with what they’ve done. It’s hard to match to each person’s taste,” he said.

Harcourts Coorparoo‘s Conrad Leisemann has experienced that difficulty first hand. He’s taken a beautifully renovated Queenslander, 6 Lancaster Street, Coorparoo, to auction with no luck, and is struggling to find a buyer for the property at a $1.25 million price point.

The issue? The house doesn’t have a built-in garage. Yes, buyers are that picky.

“You’ve only got to have one thing wrong and it scares buyers off,” Mr Leisemann said. “Buyers are telling me if we’re spending that money there’s certain attributes the homes have to have.

“They’d rather stretch to $1.5 million, $1.6 million to get something brand new and perfectly done.”

Garage aside, the house has been renovated to a luxury standard,with high-end finishes carried out by one of Brisbane’s bespoke builders. “It’s one of the best built homes I’ve ever seen,” Mr Leisemann said.