First home buyers drive 'up-crash' at cheaper end of market

Desperate first home buyers are driving a fierce contest for the cheaper end of the market, pushing a so-called 'up-crash' in prices even as interest rates rise. Lauren Jones, a buyer’s agent, said inner-city one-bedroom units in Brisbane have been rising close to $20,000 each week, and one open home the weekend after a Reserve Bank rate hike drew 55 first home buyers, investors and downsizers.

"Nothing’s changed since then," she said. "People are more concerned about getting into the market right now than rate rises." A two-bedroom apartment in Taringa sold for $870,000; Jones’s buyer had expected it would sit within an $800,000 budget and is now looking at one-bedroom units instead.

National property prices rose 0.8% in February, matching January’s gain, lifting the median by more than $7,300 to nearly $923,000, Cotality data showed. The biggest increases were in more affordable and undersupplied markets: Perth jumped 2.3%, equivalent to about $22,500, while Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart each rose more than 1%.

Australia, Brisbane, Taringa, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart

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