Among the top suburbs for house price growth in Brisbane’s northwest were Bardon, Brighton, Ashgrove, Wavell Heights, Bald Hills and Bridgeman Downs.

Wynnum, Tarragindi, Eight Mile Plains, Mount Gravatt East and Manly West were among the top growth suburbs in Brisbane’s southeast.

REIQ chief executive Antonia Mercorella said Brisbane’s affordability, climate, infrastructure and liveability would continue to help its housing market.

“The city is undergoing dramatic change as more than $17 billion in spending on 10 major projects propels us into world-city status,” Ms Mercorella said.

“Much-needed transport projects such as the Cross River Rail and Brisbane Metro will bring suburbs closer to the city and boost property prices on both sides of the river.”

Waterfront suburbs on the city’s north side recorded strong price growth over the past 12 months, with Sandgate’s median house price jumping 12.5 per cent, Shorncliffe up 7.2 per cent and Brighton’s median house price rising more than 11 per cent to $590,000.

“Areas such as Brighton, which is affordably priced, and Sandgate, are becoming increasingly appealing,” Ms Mercorella said.

“Houses are being renovated and achieving higher prices.

“Brighton, in particular, is suffering from low stock levels and with growing demand from interstate investors — who have a bit of extra cash compared with locals — this is having the effect of pushing up prices slightly.”

Agent Carl Calio of Calio & Scott Real Estate – Brighton said he believed the bayside suburb had “always been underrated”.

“We’re the last Brisbane City Council suburb before you go over the bridge to Redcliffe,” Mr Calio said.

“Being an older area, the older folk are going to aged care or, unfortunately, passing and the young people are coming in and renovating.”

The news of strong house price growth in Brighton over the past quarter has been welcomed by first home buyers Tom and Emma Rivers, who just bought a house in the suburb.

The couple paid $520,000 for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom timber home with a pool and back deck.

“The community feel, the fact it’s an established area, the lovely sea breeze and being close to the city was what did it for us,” Mr Rivers said.

“We looked at Sandgate, but it was $150,000 to $200,000 too expensive for us, so we looked further north to Brighton and it was much more in our price range.”

On the city’s outskirts, house prices grew the most in the Redlands and Moreton Bay — both up 3.3 per cent in the past 12 months — while Ipswich was the most affordable with a median house price of $345,000.

The most popular price range for houses in the Brisbane LGA is $500,000 to $750,000, with sales in this range representing nearly half of all house sales over the past year.

Brisbane has 15 suburbs in the million dollar-plus club, but is yet to break through the $2 million median barrier.

Teneriffe tops the list with a median house price of $1.79 million, followed closely by New Farm ($1.61 million).

And at the lower end of the market, some of Brisbane’s most affordable suburbs chalked up notable gains – Deagon’s median house price rose 5.7 per cent to $487,500, while Zillmere gained 4.9 per cent to $484,750.

The city’s apartment market is still suffering from an oversupply hangover, with the median unit price falling 3.4 per cent over the past quarter to $425,000.

Over the past year, the annual median unit price fell 2.2 per cent or $10,000, to $440,000.

But it wasn’t all bad news.

Seven suburbs in Brisbane LGA — Rochedale, Gordon Park, Northgate, Yeronga, Toowong, Newmarket and Red Hill — reported double-digit annual growth in median unit price in the range of 10 to 64 per cent.

And compared to five years ago, the median unit price is 5.5 per cent higher than it was in September 2013.