Australian Property News

Regional cities in need of employment initiatives

Posted on Thursday, July 22 2010 at 4:54 PM

Employment-generating infrastructure and services in regional cities needs to be the Federal Government's primary focus in releasing pressure from the capital cities, according to a Cairns property spokesperson.

The Federal Government's proposed $200 million Building Better Regional Cities initiative to be spent across 15 regional cities with populations over 30,000 could see Cairns benefit from a $15 million infrastructure injection if the Australian Labor Party is re-elected.

Liz Richards of Ray White on Mulgrave Cairns said it's a sound initiative to increase home affordability in regional cities through subsidising infrastructure costs, but the problem that needs to first be tackled is providing sustainable employment opportunities, which will then generate demand for purchasing affordable homes.

Richards said government funds must be poured into infrastructure or services that provide sustainable new employment opportunities for regional cities. "But I don't know if councils should be just handed over the funds," she said.

A new Cairns health base coming online in coming months is a good example of where government funds should be directed, she said.

"There's also a marine school that's been proposed for this area for a long time but we still haven't seen it."

Richards said after a very slow period for the property market in Cairns during the downturn, it has started to warm up a little over the past month, with potential buyer numbers doubling at property open home inspections, and more sales transacting.

"Ninety per cent of transactions are interestingly in the under $300,000 price bracket, but not specifically from first homebuyers," she said.

With the State Government's launch of the first homebuyer boost for new homes in regional cities this month, Richards hasn't yet seen a spike in numbers from this market.