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Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred has blazed through Queensland, leaving a trail of power outages, flash floods, extreme winds and untold numbers of property damage claims.
But local brokers say the storm likely won't have any lasting impacts on the market.
"I think [the cyclone] is just going to be a small blip where, within a couple of weeks, everything will be back to normal," Darren Coff, Gold Coast-based managing director and broker at Investure, told Australian Broker.
"In reality, there are heaps of power outages and there's a bit of flooding around that. There's been some small hiccups due to valuers who can't get out to their properties, or they've had damage. So that has put delays on things," he said. "A lot of our clients – because we work nationally, but are based in Queensland – have reached out because they have Queensland-based investments, asking about minor damages, like a fence fell over, or trees are down and there's leaves everywhere. Everything is messy. Or [calling] about investment properties up here. But nothing crazy.
"It wasn't a catastrophe like [people] said it was going to be," the broker said. "The majority of people, we're finding, they've had very minimal impact, apart from being without power for four or five days."
In regards to the housing market, Coff added that the storm likely inconvenienced property sellers more than anyone else.
"People who are trying to sell, they couldn't have open houses [during the storm.] So there's been a time impact," he said. "And probably the last thing on people's mind right now is buying a home. Nearly everyone I speak to is kind of the same, trying to go back to normalities. I think purchasing a property would be lower down on their priority list at the moment."
Still, it's hard to ignore the impact left from the cyclone, with heavy rain, gusts of wind traveling more than one hundred kilometres per hour, school closures, rising numbers of insurance claims and hundreds of thousands of homes around southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales left without electricity for days.
The storm was downgraded to a level one cyclone over the weekend, but banks and lenders still moved in to offer support for homeowners who were impacted by the storm. Recent emergency services included loan repayment deferrals, customized repayment plans, credit limit increases and waived fees.
Brisbane-based finance specialist and mortgage broker Luke Ashby called the cyclone "challenging," and agreed that most local residents have been in "survival mode," rather than out shopping for their dream home over the last week.
Ashby's Queensland-based team at Emerge Finance is just one of many firms that have been forced to work from home over the last week because of the storm and subsequent power outages.
"We've been without power for a couple of days and we had open homes cancelled over the weekend," he said. "We're trying to adapt so that we can continue to help our clients, because there are still refinances happening, there are still purchases happening.”
Ashby took to social media on Monday to offer tips to borrowers following the storm.
"There's support available through government channels, government pathways, through disaster relief [funds]," Ashby told Australian Broker. "And also, we're letting people know that some banks and lenders have come out, offering their support where they can, to their clients who have mortgages. Whether that means supporting repayments to help people get back on their feet, [or something else.] It's obviously been specific as to what support is out there. But we're just letting people know if they're not sure where to start to get the help or support they need, that we're happy to help if we can."
The Sunshine State's housing market has been hot in recent years – and not just because the tropical location lives up to its name with [mostly] year-round sunshine and mild winters. Increasingly, investors and homebuyers have been flocking to Queensland to buy property thanks to the state's economic opportunities, growing population and lower cost of living. The result has been a surge in home values.
In Brisbane, Queensland's capital city, property prices rose 16.6% between November 2023 and November 2024, according to CoreLogic data. And forecasts projected Brisbane's to continue growing between 5% and 8% in 2025, while far northern cities in Queensland, such as Townsville, have anticipated double digit capital gains.
While the cyclone has already caused short-term disruptions, market players say there likely won't be any long-term impacts to Queensland, and particularly Brisbane's housing market.
"It's too early to tell what sort of impact [the cyclone] will have on the market. But I don't think [Queensland's market] will wane, to be honest," Ashby said. "And I can't see the weather impacting the Brisbane property market too much, given that we've had floods in the past. We had floods in 2022 and our market continued to soar. [The market] remained hot following the floods and we didn't see an impact on properties being sold, or activity in the market, or competition.
"People go into buying property in Brisbane with the knowledge that there could be areas that are flooded, and [it's] just a timely reminder to keep on top of flood-mapping reports and ensure that they're not buying a property in a flooded area," he said. "I tried to educate [buyers] in that space as well and just make sure that people are aware of the information that they can get online in regards to flooding and flood mapping and things like that."
Coff added that the recent storm could potentially motivate some first-time homebuyers to enter the market, in search of discounts. Or, conversely, cause others to flee the coop.
"You might have people who have never experienced a cyclone before," he said. "It was only a minor cyclone, but those are people who are very fearful. And if they were on the fence about selling, they might sell and move to someplace where cyclones don't happen. There's a small element of that in the market. But it definitely won't have a negative impact on prices or demand [in the future]."
