INTEREST rates may be down but buyers are still running scared when it comes to property with the Brisbane market remaining slow at the weekend.

Source: news.com.au
Author:Torny Jensen
September 08, 2008 12:00am

This was despite the Real Estate Institute of Queensland yesterday predicting buyers would be rushing to purchase property because of forecast strong price growth.

But Australian Property Monitors data showed only 37 per cent of auction stock available in Brisbane on Saturday sold, down from the previous weekend's result of 40.4 per cent.

Sydney experienced a 50 per cent clearance rate on Saturday, while in Adelaide 64 per cent of listed properties sold at auction.

The medium sale price in Brisbane on Saturday was $558,500.

RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher said property listings in Brisbane remained high, with many sellers unable to find buyers.

There were 12,199 houses in Brisbane listed for sale at the weekend and 45,180 houses across Queensland.

"Before we will see things heat up again we will need to see the number of propertieson the market drop," Mr Kusher said.

"We haven't seen the same dramatic increases in listings lately as we were earlier in the year, so I think people (sellers) are starting to get the message."

REIQ research meanwhile showed housing prices increased across most areas of Queensland by 10-20 per cent in the past year, despite weakness in the most recent quarter.

Mr Kusher said some parts of the state, including towns benefiting from the mining boom and inner-Brisbane suburbs, would continue to report good price growth.

He predicted the rest of the state would experience moderate growth over the next year.

"We think things will be pretty flat for probably the next 12 to 18 months," he said.

Mr Kusher said buyers would probably hold off in the short term despite the Reserve Bank's decision to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.

"I think that the interest rate cut has been a good thing, but I would predict that we need another four or five cuts before we start to get people back into the market, he said. "I don't think we're going to see that."

He said many homeowners were smarting from previous interest rate rises, and would be reluctant to reinvest.