Property market research: 12 steps for a Brisbane home

Compare recent sales, inspect the property's condition and check flood, planning and ownership costs before choosing an offer price. An online estimate is one reference point, not a valuation or a guarantee of what the home will sell for.

We can provide an RP Data property report and help check your finance budget. Use the report alongside your own comparable-sales research and advice about the property.

Let's use a historical example. The saved reports and sales below show the research process; they are not current valuations or market forecasts.

In this historical example, a good mate of mine wanted to buy 82 Charlotte Street, Paddington, and sent me this email.

It's easy to get excited about seeing new properties and even easier to quickly fall in love with a particular aspect of a home, like a kitchen or outdoor area, but it's important to remain objective to make sure the property checks all of your boxes.

Property can be a largely emotional purchase, so you need to consider a few things before falling head over heels in love with a property:

Simon will use this checklist to determine whether 82 Charlotte Street is the best fit for him. 

We recommend spending some time thinking about these things and creating what we call a "buyer brief". A Buyer Brief is a document that spells out all of the different aspects of your ideal home. Preparing a Buyer Brief will make sure that you don't miss any important things during your property search.

We have created a worksheet that will help you to create your buyer brief.

You can download a template of the buyer brief here: Download my buyer brief

Understanding market trends is essential when buying property in Brisbane. Here's how to read price movement graphs and suburb growth charts effectively.

Price movement graphs display how property values change over time. Look for:

Use the graph as context. A suburb median can change because different types of homes sold, so compare similar individual sales too.

Several metrics provide insights into the property market:

Read these measures together and check the date and sample size. None establishes the value of an individual home.

Consider a property purchased for $1,000,000. With a 5% annual growth rate:

Over three years, the property appreciates by $157,625, demonstrating the power of compound growth.

Emotional decisions can lead to overpaying. Stick to your budget and investment criteria. Rely on data and professional advice to guide your choices.

Even if you are familiar with a local area, it's still worth taking into consideration the following:

Buying a property on a good street is just as important as buying in a good suburb. Some streets can be too close to noise, such as train lines, schools, or main roads.

Most property inspections are done on Saturdays when the traffic is much different from during the week when there are commuters going to work and kids being dropped at school.

Before buying a property, I check it out at least one morning before work around 8 am and again one evening around 5-5.30 pm to see if it is affected by rat runners racing down your street or traffic noise you wouldn't otherwise notice on a quiet Saturday morning.

If you live interstate or can't get the time off work to do this, you can use Google Maps to factor in the extra time it takes to battle the traffic.

As you can see from comparing a drive into the city from Paddington at 9 am on a Monday versus a Saturday, it can take around 6-10 minutes extra, adding 50% onto your commute time. 

Simon will have to decide whether or not he is willing to spend those extra minutes on the road during the week.

WalkScore is a great tool to give you an idea of the local transportation situation and parks. WalkScore also has my personal favourite tool, Travel Time Map, which uses maps to show how far you can get from your potential new home by walking for 20 minutes, driving for 10 minutes, etc. 

With a Walk Score of 94 out of 100, 82 Charlotte Street looks like a solid buy. This location is considered a "Walker's Paradise", so daily errands do not require a car. There are also lots of cafes and restaurants nearby. This means it could be a good property for renters in the future.

Another tool I like using at this stage is Microburbs. 

This gives you some really powerful data that can help understand the property and the local area quickly, including demographic data that has been extracted directly from the Census. It provides lots of different data such as:

Even if you intend to make this property your home, it's worth knowing what you could rent it out for in the future. This gives you more options and also helps you understand if it could also be sold as an investment property in the future.

The fundamentals for a strong rental market include:

Working out potential rental per week is not an exact science. Below are some methods property managers use to determine the rental potential. While they can be subjective, you can at least work out a broad idea of what rental to expect per week.

In the example of 82 Charlotte Street the rental ranges from $900 to $1200 per week.

So overall for 82 Charlotte Street you could estimate around $900 to $1200 in rent.

Price will always be a limiting factor when buying property, and that's especially true for first-home buyers. It's likely that you're going to have a strict budget based on how much deposit you've saved up and how much the bank is willing to lend you.

Use an online calculator for an initial estimate, then check lender requirements and your actual expenses before treating it as a purchase budget.

This is the most important part of the process, especially in today's market, where real estate agents aren't putting prices on properties and are 'leaving it to the market to decide'. In other words, they are hoping someone is going to overpay.

The fundamentals of a strong property market include:

Check current listings and recent settled sales before relying on this historical Paddington example. Limited supply alone does not establish future price growth.

As with rental, working out your future home's value is not an exact science.

A seller may accept a price above or below your estimate. Comparable sales give you evidence for an offer, but they do not establish a guaranteed sale price or the lender's valuation.

To determine a home's value, you need to look at recent sales of similar properties with these characteristics:

The last point is where your research can get a bit subjective but try to take a step back and look at it as an external investor would.

There are online methods you can use to research property value.

In this historical example, the saved comparable sales suggested a range of $1.8 million to $2 million. This is not a current estimate for 82 Charlotte Street.

The saved comparisons supported the historical $1.8 million to $2 million range more closely than the higher automated estimate. They did not establish a firm maximum value. Refresh the sales and inspect differences before using any range for an offer today.

This is the same with using OnTheHouse to do property research. The price estimate compares properties sold in neighbouring suburbs which aren't directly comparable.

The property market is dynamic; it can move from a buyers' to a sellers' market pretty quickly. You get a good feel for this looking at open homes, but other resources like sqm data and DSR data can also be good. Another aspect of the property market that can shift is prices.

When researching your property, it is important to understand that prices could have shifted since the time the property you are seeing online was sold. A good way to factor in these changes is to use CoreLogic Indices, which will show the change year on year and monthly. 

As an example, adding 12% to $926,000 gives $1,037,120. That arithmetic does not establish a unit's current value: city-wide growth may differ from its suburb, property type and condition. Check recent comparable sales before adjusting an older sale. 

A hypothetical 1% rise on $900,000 is $9,000. Monthly market data does not guarantee that an individual home would sell for $909,000.

Now, this isn't precise, but at least it gives you an understanding and helps you ensure you're not underbidding because you're just going to miss out, which will cause more of that frustration. We see it a lot where home buyers might be out there for 6 to 18 months looking for homes and just constantly missing out because they are not factoring in the movement in the market. Remember, what people are willing to pay on the property is what they're willing to pay on the day, not what was paid 6 months ago.

Local projects, schools and planning can affect demand and how you use the property. Check the evidence rather than treating them as a prediction of price growth.

New infrastructure and transport projects can dramatically influence property prices. Consider:

Tip: Always check government announcements and planning portals to see upcoming infrastructure projects.

Good schools consistently drive demand. Key points include:

Population changes can indicate future property growth. Track:

Data sources such as the ABS Census and local council population reports are invaluable for this research.

Council development plans and zoning maps reveal future growth opportunities. Look for:

Check restrictions as well as proposed development. Rezoning or a nearby project does not guarantee your property will rise in value.

Use current official plans to check venue locations and related infrastructure. Then assess how the works could affect access, noise and your intended use of the property.

Separate a confirmed project from a forecast about property values. Include construction disruption and delivery uncertainty in your research.

Estimated value in the report image below (7 November 2022): $1.45 million. The linked sample PDF is an older report for the same property, prepared on 11 September 2018; it is not the source of this estimate. This is below the $1.8 million to $2 million range discussed above. Check the report date and underlying comparisons before relying on either figure.

The historical research above suggested $1.8 million to $2 million, while the saved RP Data estimate (7 November 2022) was $1.45 million. That difference is a reason to investigate the evidence, not to treat either figure as confirmed value.

As a fun little bonus, I thought we'd include a way for you to research the history of your home. 

Brisbane's suburbs are littered with character homes that have lots and lots of history. Before you move in, you can learn a little bit more about what has happened in your home in the past by visiting the Queensland State Archives and tracing the history of your home. 

Much less fun, but still very important is to research the flood history of your home to make sure it hasn't gone underwater before. 

Whether or not your house has been flooded before drastically affects:

Pop on over to the Flood Awareness Map on the Brisbane City Council Website and enter the property's address. Also, follow our step-by-step FloodWise tutorial.

In the case of 82 Charlotte Street, it has a medium likelihood of being flooded, meaning a flood event is likely to affect the property during a single lifetime of around 70 years, with a 1% chance of a flood occurring in any year. Have a look at the sample flood report here, but as you can see the property is affected by Overland Flow Path.

Overland flow flooding usually occurs when the capacity of the underground pipe drainage system is exceeded and/or when the overland flow path is blocked. It is recommended you consult a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland to determine a property's habitable floor level and flooding depth. Please refer to the Council's planning scheme for further information.

Flooding in Brisbane is fairly common in suburbs around the river or in low-lying areas like Paddington, Rosalie, Milton and West End. It doesn't mean the end of the world for your future home, but it does mean you should do some more research before going ahead.

Read more: How to Flood Check using FloodWise Property Report in Brisbane

Once you have finished all the research above, you probably now know what property you want as well as what you are willing to pay for it. It is now time to put your offer to the real estate agent.

As we covered in our First Home Buyer Guide, a good real estate agent will work hard for the seller to get the best price. So, remember that the agent isn't working for you as the buyer. 

Keep the comparable sales and risk checks with your brief so you can explain and reassess your offer.

You need to put your best foot forward by asking the right questions to identify potential issues on the property as well as any information that can help with your negotiations.

Here are a few points to consider when negotiating:

Our First Home Buyer's Guide has questions you can ask your real estate agent, as well as tips on how to make an offer on a property in Brisbane.

If I was buying 82 Charlotte Street, this is how I would be prepared: 

If they counter at $1.9 million, an increase from $1.8 million to $1.89 million would be 5%. That is close to their counteroffer, rather than halfway between the two prices. Only increase if the evidence and your budget support it.

If they are unwilling to budge, I would move on to the next property. If their counteroffer is slightly above what I was hoping to spend, then I'd accept the offer and move forward. If their counteroffer is much higher than I'd like to spend, then I'd suggest another counteroffer.

When I bought my home, they were asking for offers over $750,000. I started with an offer of $690,000 and settled with the vendors at $705,000.  

I actually beat another offer the vendors had of $710,000 because I had shorter finance and settlement terms.

So it's important that you are organised and have your finances ready to make your offer as competitive as possible.  Click here to get a free assessment.

We have mentioned so many property research tools in this article. Here is the comprehensive list and breakdown of tools and resources to guide you on how to research a house before buying.

Note: The availability of paid features may vary.

We can help check the lender's valuation, borrowing options and finance timing before you commit to a purchase.

If you want to get started, please get in touch here, and we can book a time that suits you. We can schedule either a phone call information session or a face-to-face meeting at no charge to you.