Brisbane is expected to continue to see good rental yields for investors. Picture: Brisbanemarketing.com.au.

INVESTOR numbers seem to have fallen off a cliff in southern capitals but Brisbane was expected to buck the trend, according to latest expert analysis.

Rental yields in Brisbane – calculated as rent divided by price – have continued to outperform Sydney and Melbourne when it comes to both houses (4 per cent) and units (4.9 per cent), adding to its allure for investors, according to Nerida Conisbee, chief economist of the REA Group.

“One factor keeping yields high in Brisbane has been that prices haven’t risen quite as much as Sydney and Melbourne,” she said. “In 2018 we expect investors to continue to look at Brisbane favourably primarily because there seems to be rising rental demand and pricing is far more reasonable.”

She said it was likely that rental yields would rise this year.

“There are a few things driving this. The first is that prices are expected to remain relatively stable. A big factor driving yields downwards is rising prices and we don’t expect prices to rise as strongly in 2018.

“The second is we expect far fewer rentals to enter the market this year – this is because we have now come to the end of a strong run in investor demand. We expect fewer investors in the market this year because of difficulties in accessing finance, changes to many of the incentives to invest, as well as changing sentiment towards housing.”

Ms Conisbee warned that since Brisbane has had such a strong apartment development boom, “I can’t see strong rental growth for apartments”.

“Houses however are another matter – they will definitely outperform apartments in 2018.”

Her picks for good rental yield in Brisbane this year? “We can see on our site that the most in demand suburbs from renters for houses are Fortitude Valley, Windsor and New Farm. If I was looking to buy a rental property in Brisbane I would be looking at houses in those suburbs.”