Wow uh, please form an orderly queue folks. There's nothing like the words "fire sale" to inspire confidence in this totally-not-a-bursting-bubble-nothing-to-see-here market.
And this comes right after BIS Oxford Economics published a study showing 40% of Brisbane apartments and 60% of
Melbourne apartments have sold at a loss since 2011.
A marketer is offering discounts of up to 39 per cent on apartments in a newly-completed residential development in a sign that Brisbane's apartment oversupply may be biting.
Two-bedroom apartments in The Hudson development on Albion Mill marked down from $805,000 to $490,000, three-bedroom penthouses cut from $1.2 million to $960,000 and one-bedroom units reduced to $335,000 from $445,000 feature on the price list David Carter from Landmark Asset Services sent to clients this week.
An attached flier offered 'Sizzling Hot Deals'.
"The funder has taken the project off the developer and has given us four weeks to sell the remaining 50 or so apartments," Mr Carter wrote in the email.
"I have never sent an email like this to friends and family but this is a damn good opportunity for anyone if they are looking for an investment and a fire sale price".
He declined to comment when contacted by The Australian Financial Review.
The Reserve Bank of Australia and other forecasters have long sounded warnings about an oversupply of apartments in the Queensland capital.
Greater Brisbane this year faces an oversupply of 8000 new dwellings this year as scheduled completions outstrip population-driven growth in demand, research group SQM said earlier this month.
Tim Jones, a director of Twin Ocean Corporation, which developed The Hudson in a joint venture with Sydney-based Barwon Investment Partners, said he was unaware of the email, but they were planning to discount the remaining apartments in a campaign next week.
"It's not a liquidation sale," Mr Jones told the Financial Review. "That is not the situation. We've got between 40 to 45 units to sell. We want to start specific campaigns over various stock to pricepoint it to make sure we get sales."
Mr Jones said there were no financial problems with the project. Twin Ocean was refinancing a debt facility.
"I'm just getting another line of capital – debt capital to pay out one of our other partners."
Comment was being sought from Barwon Investment Partners.
Mr Jones said there was a squeeze on the residential development market in Brisbane at the moment, but said that wasn't affecting the 14-level The Hudson development, 4.6km northwest of the CBD, on the old Flour Mill site near Albion Train Station.
Twin Ocean reportedly paid Aveo Group $7 million for the site in 2014.
"We have settled $65 million worth of stock in three months with only one [settlement] fall over," Mr Jones said. "We're not in the [Fortitude] Valley or the city of Brisbane."