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House hunters have dramatically lost patience with NSW, but have embraced infrastructure-hungry Queensland.
The Time to Buy a Dwelling Index registered a 4.8 per cent deterioration across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia for the 12 months to September.
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NSW was largely responsible for the decline, with its reading crashing 33.6 per cent to 63.8 points, according to property group PRDnationwide, which compiled the index based on data from Westpac and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
Victoria also went backwards, with its reading falling 14.4 per cent to 93.2 points.
The other states made gains – South Australia by 1.9 per cent to 124.2, Western Australia by 4.5 per cent to 137.7 and Queensland by 17.3 per cent to 145.
PRDnationwide national research manager Asti Mardiasmo said NSW’s position was “a classic case of a vulnerable market”.
“What shoots up at such a rapid pace will also go down at equal pace the minute that there is a chink in the armour,” she said.
“The chink in the armour in this case is affordability – in June 2015, NSW was the only state whose affordability index went down.”
Dr Mardiasmo said Queensland’s improvement reflected the state’s affordability and capital growth.
“Buyers are realising there is a similar price growth percentage in major Queensland property markets such as Brisbane and the Gold Coast – however, the price of property is lower than Sydney and other metro NSW markets,” she said.
Another factor has been the considerable infrastructure development planned for the triangle of Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, according to Dr Mardiasmo.
This includes a new casino for Brisbane, a new hospital for the Sunshine Coast and the Commonwealth Games preparations taking place on the Gold Coast.
“Knowledge of potential growth is being made public and starting to happen now, investors are seeing this potential and investing now in anticipation of future growth,” she said.
[Related: First home owners can afford higher rates, report says]
