Sellers in some southeast Queensland suburbs discounted their sale price by as much as 12% over the six months to March, according to new data analysis by Domain.
The results showed that houses at Carindale, Clontarf, Redcliffe, and Rochedale South topped the list of Greater Brisbane suburbs with the highest percentage of vendors discounting their asking price.
Chermside, New Farm, Redcliffe, and South Brisbane, meanwhile, had the highest rate of discounting for units.
Houses at Broadbeach Waters and Hope Island, which are located on the Gold Coast, recorded double-digit average vendor discounting. In terms of units, Main Beach and Southport posted the highest rate of discounting in the coastal city.
On the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore and Tewantin houses were being discounted by the highest percentage.
The rate of discounting could suggest conditions in particular suburbs, according to Domain Economist Trent Wiltshire.
“This can be a bit more timely than price data,” he said. “But it is only an average figure and, while the average or median is the simplest way to look at a suburb, it doesn’t tell the full story.”
Carindale’s housing market was performing well, but the average discounting rate was possibly pulled down by a specific price point, according to Will Torres of Torres Property
Carindale’s median house price is $879,750 – up by 1.1% over the year to March.
“I’d say the market that is being affected at the moment is that mid-$1 million price range,” Torres told Domain. “Rewind to six months ago, I was selling houses in this price range in three weeks — now I’m struggling to get numbers in the door. That’s where the discounting will be, around that $1.5 million range, and that’s why the Carindale percentage is that high.”
Broadbeach Waters had the highest rate of vendor discounting, up to 12%. The figure was likely increased by houses in the $2 million to $3 million range, which were sometimes overpriced, according to Jordan Williams of JW Prestige.
“If you’re 10% over the odds you won’t get a result, you won’t get a deal — that’s why you’re seeing that average discount for Broadbeach Waters,” he told Domain.
Hope Island, meanwhile, registered an average vendor discount of 10.3%. “On average we’d sell a property a week in Hope Island. I would say if you look back at everything we’ve sold in the past few years, we’ve probably only advertised one as having a price reduction… It’s the exception,” Warren Hickey of Hope Island Resort Realty told Domain.
Sunshine Coast’s Maroochydore recorded an average discount on houses of 7.5%, but an agent said that a lot of the properties in higher demand were auctioned.
“If anyone in Maroochydore is discounting, I’d say it’s more of a reflection of a few properties that came on the market with unrealistic expectations,” Damien Said of Century 21 told Domain. “Generally, we’re finding that when properties do come on the market, as long as the price is realistic, our days on market are reducing. The coast market is still quite active.”
Domain’s data was collected using a minimum of 30 observations and did not include properties that sold via auction or without a listed price.
