With the combined capital cities posting a 0.4 per cent drop in house prices over the quarter, and a 6.4 per cent drop over the year, how did Australia’s regional markets fare?
It’s a story of many factors – and many micro-markets, with numbers up and down across the board.
Domain economist Trent Wiltshire said the three significant driving factors boosting the national market were the Coalition winning the election, interest rate cuts, and APRA’s changes to lending rules, but local or regional factors might have more of an influence on prices at a town level.
“So things like job prospects, investor demand, tree-change or sea-change demand, and the drought,” he explained. “These big things are happening, but they would have more an immediate impact in Sydney and Melbourne.”
“It might be that these local factors outweigh these big changes, but I still think those changes will see prices bottom out in a lot of areas,” he added.
Queensland
Mr Wiltshire said regional Queensland markets were heavily influenced by the mining sector and the job outlook for different towns.
Excluding Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, the most significant growth in house prices was in the Mackay region, up 9.4 per cent year on year to a median of $360,000.
Explore Property Mackay owner Ben Chick said there was plenty of buyer demand.
“The investors are starting to trickle back into our region,” he said. “A lot of people are just beginning to understand that now is a good time to get into the market.”
Mr Chick said a lot of people were moving back to Mackay for work, with the area back on the radar for coal, and also for being selected as a site for Qantas’ second pilot training academy.
“There’s more energy and more activity in Mackay – more people in restaurants, more people buying cars,” he explained. “Everybody is feeling better about Mackay itself.”
Mackay’s growth was followed by Toowoomba, up 4.67 per cent to $392,500.
Cairns saw a small downward nudge in medians for both houses and apartments, with houses down 0.76 per cent to $392,00 and apartments down 0.22 per cent to $252,195.
The most significant drop was in Darling Downs-Maranoa, down 3.7 per cent to $260,000, the cheapest median of regional Queensland.
Queenland Regions – House prices
Region | Median Price | QoQ | YoY |
Cairns | $392,000 | -2.00% | -0.76% |
Darling Downs – Maranoa | $260,000 | -1.70% | -3.70% |
Fitzroy | $300,000 | -3.23% | 1.69% |
Ipswich | $415,000 | 0.00% | 4.88% |
Logan | $439,500 | -2.33% | 0.11% |
Mackay | $360,000 | 4.96% | 9.42% |
Moreton Bay – North | $450,000 | 0.00% | 1.81% |
Moreton Bay – South | $506,750 | -0.44% | 2.37% |
Toowoomba | $392,500 | 3.29% | 4.67% |
Townsville | $315,000 | -1.56% | 0.00% |
Wide Bay | $315,000 | 0.32% | 1.61% |
Source: www.domain.com.au