Brisbane Weekly Auction Data

Here's the latest weekly Auction Clearance rate data:

The number of auctions steadied at just over 100 auctions, however clearance rates rose to just under 60% with houses dominating the sales at 59% including three properties sold in at St Lucia for $2.5 million each! Unit auctions dropped won to 35%.

Brisbane Weekly Auction Data

Here's the latest weekly Auction Clearance rate data:

Number of auctions starting to pick up with again houses dominating the auctions with 61% clearance rate and units clearing at a high 80%.

Brisbane Price Growth Data

I've been expanding upon my Brisbane property analysis and have started the completion of the 15-20km range of suburbs which ironically is probably where I'll only be able to afford given some of the house pricing within the 15km radius from the city.

Regardless, here's some price growth data for New Farm State School Catchment, Brisbane City State School Catchment, Kelvin Grove State College Catchment and Petrie Terrace State School Catchment.

Interesting to note the complete lack of growth in the Brisbane CBD and Petrie Terrace which is ironically where majority of the new apartments are being built. Kelvin Grove Housing on the flip side though has boomed in 2015 with well above the average growth but my analysis suggests that it's passed it's recent peak from my data and is accelerating into new realms of pricing.

Brisbane Weekly Auction Data

Here's the latest weekly Auction Clearance rate data:

Number of auctions are down since 2015, however the clearance rate hasn't changed dramatically.

Housing sales again dominated the auctions, with a clearance of over 51% and Units were down at only 40%. The low number of auctions limit the accuracy of this data so hopefully as the weeks progress we can see more trends given that 2016 is that boom year so many have predicted.

January Portfolio Performance

A quick follow up post to my original on My Experiences with the Concept of Dollar Cost Averaging and my current continual investment in the Vanguard Australian Shares Index Fund.

The start of 2016 was a rough ride for those playing in the stock market, much of January was spent reading articles hailing the next GFC and all sorts of negative news which drove the stock market down. Quite strangely this was on the back of the US raising interest rates in December, providing fuel to the fire that the recession in America is over. However, it seemed that the over inflated Chinese stock market and its subsequent fall from grace heavily impacted the Australia share market with limited gains for my Vanguard Share Index Fund.

This month in December the fund had improved performance compared to the month of November.

Look it's not surprising that this months performance for the month was poor given the insane amount of negative coverage of the stock market occurred during the month of January. One thing to note though is what saved me from producing a negative rate of return was that my reinvestment plan kicked in and added the equivalent of a months worth of investment into the fund, completely free of charge. I am well aware of the process of investing quality products, holding those products and letting the compound growth work wonders and this is a clear example of letting your money do the work for you - a "free" months worth of investment via the automated reinvestment plan I've set up through Vanguard. Even more exciting to note is that the more I invest, the more value the reinvestment plan adds to the fund. 

January also was the first month I bought a LIC ETF fund (ASX: AFI), I've documented my investment approach here. I will purchase my next ETF fund in 16 weeks, I am still unsure whether to keep going with the AFI fund or go with perhaps another fund to diversify my portfolio further. Ultimately, I'll be comparing the performance of these LIC ETF funds and my Vanguard Index Fund.

I'll continue to update this on a monthly period to see whether the whole concept of investing into an index fund long term at regular intervals works. Next month I'll compare the performance of the AFI LIC ETF to the Vanguard Index Fund.

Brisbane Metro System

A recent discussion with a mate about the current public transport situation in Brisbane and a lack of a metro system lead to the discovery of the an article written by Brisbane Development. The article raised some very good points and many in which I agree with. The issue with Brisbane at the moment is that it is well known that the train network is nearing it's capacity and with Campbell Newman recently ousted as the Queensland premier his BAT Tunnel was promptly swept off the agenda. This BAT tunnel would have added further capacity to the train network allowing more trains to arrive from the south side of the city via Albert street and providing a further link to the 'Gabba which is currently accessibly only by bus via public transport. On top of this, the city has a heavy reliance on the use of buses which not only add further congestion to the roads but are also nearing their capacity.

Strangely, soon after the current Lord Mayor announced an intention to begin planning a metro system in Brisbane running from Herston to West End.

The system would have a capacity to take 30,000 people an hour and if it were to be a successful project then perhaps those over supplied areas in West End and New Stead would suddenly see a bigger incentive for people to live in those areas with a much faster mode of transport into the CBD.

The Labor candidate revealed weeks prior that they are looking into the possibility of a light rail system from St Lucia (University of Queensland), West End, CBD, Fortitude Valley and then New Stead. No cemented details have been released but will be interesting to see what happens with the upcoming council election and especially what and if a metro system goes ahead and the impact on the property values in those suburbs.

Brisbane Weekly Auction Data

Well back into the swing of these for 2016, once again the enduro bike has failed in possibly the worse possible way. Snapped the swing arms in half out at Cornubia and somehow managed to walk away without a scratch on me, #shouldhaveboughtalottoticket.

The 2016 auction season has officially kicked it and naturally the number of auctions are severely low - however the clearance rate has significantly rose. In fact, it has been well documented that Brisbane had the best capital growth performance in Australia for the last quarter of 2015.

Look, I'm not going to look too much in depth into this, really it's a pointless piece of information but as shown below at the clearance rate has risen.

Housing sales again dominated the auctions, with a clearance of over 60%. It will be interesting to see how the remainder of 2016 goes considering a number of commentators arguing that Brisbane is going to receive a bit of a property boom given it's affordability and recent job growth.