The 2011 Queensland floods are among the largest disaster events in Australia. The floods claimed 35 lives, affected around 200,000 people and more than 70 towns across south-east Queensland, including Brisbane, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley. Around 18,000 homes were also affected and insurance claims totalled $2.4 billion.
Two years on from the devastation, median home values in some suburbs affected by the floods are now higher than they were before the floods, however the majority of affected suburbs have recorded falls in value, according to RP Data analysis.
The analysis, carried out by RP Data senior research analyst Cameron Kusher, looked at the median home value of flood-affected suburbs with over 200 properties and provides a comparison of values in January 2011 to those in January 2013.
“For houses, we analysed the performance of 96 suburbs across the Brisbane and Ipswich council areas. 88 of these suburbs recorded a fall in house values over the two years, with just eight of these suburbs recording a value increase,” Mr Kusher said.
The figures reinforce what has generally been a weaker property market for the greater Brisbane area between January 2011 and January 2013. During this period, house values across Greater Brisbane have fallen by -6.0% and unit values by -0.9%, according to the RP Data-Rismark Home Value Index.
“Although the results of the RP Data-Rismark Home Value Index and these figures aren’t directly comparable, 74 of the 88 suburbs, which have recorded value falls over the past two years, have seen a larger decline than the -6.0% fall across Greater Brisbane over the same time. Interestingly, over the 12 months to January 2011, 39 of these suburbs recorded no change or an increase in house values,” he said.
The suburbs of Newstead (-22.8%), Fairfield (-21.9%) and Rocklea (-20.3%) recorded the biggest drops in median house value between January 2011 and January 2013. The biggest increase occurred in Auchenflower at 9.3%.
In the inner city Brisbane suburb of St Lucia, considered among the worst affected areas by the floods, the median house value has fallen -11.6%. In Ipswich, the median house value dropped from $366,313 in 2011 to $306,309 in 2013 (-12.0%).
Fewer suburbs, 48, were included in the analysis of the unit market across the Brisbane and Ipswich council areas.
“41 of the 48 suburbs have recorded a fall in value over the past two years with the remaining seven suburbs recording an increase in value,” Mr Kusher said.
The biggest decreases in median unit value were in Acacia Ridge (-24.8%), Milton (-15.8%) and Salisbury (-13.8%). The biggest increase was in Hawthorne (5.5%), with increases also recorded in Herston (1.1%), Kelvin Grove (1.1%) and Highgate Hill (1.0%).
“37 of the 41 suburbs that have recorded a fall in unit values over the past two years have recorded a greater fall than the -0.9% fall across the Greater Brisbane area. Over the 12 months to January 2011, 17 of the 48 suburbs had recorded an increase in unit values,” he said.