Inside the suburb where you can get a unit for half the area’s house price

More new homeowners across Brisbane are choosing to avoid buying houses, opting instead for apartments in a better location, of a similar size and for a cheaper price.

Homeowner Ashlee Brooks was one of those people, finding an apartment in Holland Park West two years ago for $585,000.

Recently pregnant, she purchased the apartment with her partner as a convenient place to raise their child.

“We just knew that the house prices were too out of reach at that point in time,” she said. “We decided to go towards the unit … to be closer to family and work, and to have a better work-life balance.”

Ashlee Brooks and her partner bought their unit because it was big enough for their family, while being cheaper and in a better location. Picture: Liam Kidston

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Exclusive findings by SuburbData have shown areas across Brisbane where apartment prices are less than a third of their suburb’s median house price.

Amid surging apartment demand, the research found the divide was typically greater in luxury suburbs like Teneriffe, where units sit at 22 per cent of the median house price.

Meanwhile, apartments in lower-income areas such as Taigum have a lesser financial divide (71.6 per cent). However, the average unit will have 2.4 bedrooms, compared to 3.6 bedrooms for houses in the area – meaning both units and houses in the suburb are offering comparable space.

In Holland Park West, the current median unit price is $635,000, compared to a median house price of $1,225,000.

Judged by those medians, units are worth around 51.8 per cent of house prices in the area.

Ms Brooks said their three-bedroom apartment was in walking distance of every amenity they could need, from childcare centres and shops to a nearby park.

“It’s been a great location,” she said. “If we wanted a house, we would need to move further away, [so] we opted for the unit. The size of the three-bedroom was a much better option for us.”

“It’s quite spacious. We can still have visitors, we can still have guests. It’s a great community between your neighbours … so our compromise didn’t end up really being a compromise.”

Their apartment at 4/35 Crown St, Holland Park West, is now up for sale, with Ms Brooks and her family considering upsizing to another apartment.

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Place Nundah agent Thomas Coussens said the housing market is reaching a point where a house is no longer an affordable prospect for many Brisbane locals.

“In general, the housing market is has gone well and truly beyond the million dollar mark for something that’s liveable,” he said. “It really just leaves units and townhouses as the most affordable option for people.”

Mr Coussens said as the years go by, Brisbane’s housing affordability will look more like Sydney and Melbourne’s, where accessibility to the CBD will spike prices beyond reasonable rates.

“I think that in some suburbs were already there, and as the city expands, the markets in further-out areas gentrify further,” he said. That’s where we’ll be in a lot of suburbs. And that’s not uncommon in other places.”

SuburbData’s research does not refute that apartment prices are also surging. PropTrack’s latest Home Price Index saw apartment prices in Brisbane spike by 17 per cent over the last year, compared to a 12 per cent increase in house prices.

The median apartment price in Brisbane was $670,000 in October, whereas the median house price was $970,000.