FEATURE STORY
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PR E ST IGE
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n the heart of Brisbane’s sleepy, familyfriendly suburbs you’ll find pockets of luxury riverside homes in hot demand as families flee the concrete jungle for a COVIDfree castle on a big block. Amid the trend that’s seen luxury buyers across the globe flee the big city lights, quiet suburbs such as Graceville, Fig Tree Pocket and Chelmer are flourishing, with median price growth of up to 20 per cent recorded over the past year alone. McGrath Paddington agent Alex Jordan has long witnessed a rising appetite for palatial homes in key riverside hot spots, but says that hunger has become ravenous with luxury homes near top schools sitting on a pile of gold. He says out-of-state home hunters have played a vital role in pushing up those prices. Graceville has seen a 21.1 per cent rise in house prices over the past 12 months, according to Domain’s latest quarterly House Price Report. The suburb now boasts a median house price of $1,047,500 – which is up 46.3 per cent from five years ago.
Return of the big backyard Brisbane’s prestige market has never been hotter as buyers compete for high-end homes on family-friendly blocks. B y SAR AH WE B B
In nearby Brookfield, house prices climbed 19.4 per cent over the past year to a median of $1.243 million. Fig Tree Pocket and Chelmer also grew 12.7 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively, to $1.31 million and $1.28 million. Jordan says the pandemic-fuelled shift towards bigger blocks in prestigious school catchments has reinvigorated the market. “Education is the number one driver … these suburbs offer some of the best public and private schools in Queensland. And then there’s the
lifestyle … they are more established and they’re leafy,” he says. The increased interest helped Graceville post a new suburb house price record of $6.3 million for 59 Molonga Terrace in September last year through Heath Williams of Place Estate Agents New Farm. The price was a cool couple of million dollars higher than the previous record. “What I’ve noticed is the interstate demand is unprecedented,” Jordan says. “Brisbane has never seen this level of interest. Of the last five
