Queensland property boom moves from Brisbane to regional north

The regional Queensland property market is continuing to soar, as the tail end of the national property boom works its way out to smaller centres. 

In north Queensland’s Townsville, home values have surged 27.2 per cent in the past 12 months, while in Central Queensland’s Gladstone prices have soared 27.1 per cent, according to CoreLogic. 

The ten best performing regional Queensland markets performed even better than the top ten markets in regional Western Australia, where prices have rocketed. 

According to experts, the Queensland regional markets are driven by their comparative affordability, as buyers flee Melbourne, Sydney, and, more recently, Brisbane.

When the boom in regional Queensland will end is becoming a central question, particularly with most of the rest of the nation off the boil. According to CoreLogic, nationwide, prices fell by 0.1 per cent in December.

Yet the answer depends on who you ask — and which specific market you are talking about.

In several markets prices are growing so rapidly that bank valuations are regularly coming in below sales contract prices — a typical sign of an overheated market.

In Townsville, population 198,000, the boom remains very much underway.

“Townsville is the hottest market in Australia in my opinion,” said Jennifer Smith of NQ Buyers Agent, based in Townsville. 

“We get a lot of people from Sydney and Melbourne but now that it’s had such a phenomenal amount of growth, I’m getting a lot of people who can’t get into Brisbane anymore.

“People who would have invested into Brisbane — well you can’t do that anymore, so what do you do?

“So now they’ve been going into Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Cairns, wherever they can get their foot in the door,” Ms Smith told Australian Property Investor Magazine.

The median Townsville home prices was now $552,640, according to CoreLogic. 

“People are very, very desperate, and properties are going well over what you would expect,” said Ms Smith.

But that didn’t necessarily mean a slump was around the corner.

There were multiple strong underlying drivers, including strong population growth and a very tight rental market.

“If you are asking if its overdone? I can’t say that it is,” Ms Smith said.

“Especially when I look at the number of people who are trying to buy into Townsville, how many locals, and how many people are trying to get rentals.

“A little unit on my street was open the other weekend and there were cars all the way along the street. You couldn’t even park in your own street. And that’s just for a rental.”

There was also strong pent-up demand, with Townsville having not experienced the same boom following the Covid lockdowns as Cairns. 

“After Covid, Cairns was going like crazy and people were just throwing money to try to get into Cairns and relocate,” Ms Smith said. 

“Townsville didn’t have that. 

“It’s been a whole perfect storm of things coming together.”

Townsville property developer Maidment Group said it had recently sold 50 home lots in just four weeks, “illustrating the explosive demand for affordable land in Townsville”.

The Sanctum Estate development, about 25 minutes north of Townsville, offered land parcels starting at $209,000.

“The sales pace at Sanctum Estate is a clear indicator of the rising demand for housing in Townsville,” Glen Maidment, Managing Director, Maidment Group, said.

Further south, in Central Queensland’s Rockhampton, a city of about 85,000, it’s a similar story.

Katrina Schneider, Property Partner at The Agency Central Queensland, said the market had been “crazy”.

“I did notice around Christmas that things were slowing a little bit, but then I’ve seen other sales that have been ridiculous, people are getting just crazy money.

But valuers employed by lending banks could be heralding an end to the party.

“Being a retired bank manager, I’m probably a little bit more conservative,” Ms Schneider said.

“But I think that the market does have to come back sooner or later; you can’t sustain this height.”

She said most valuers were now valuing properties at below the contract price negotiated between buyers and sellers.

“The valuers are causing a lot of the contracts either to fall over or they’re being renegotiated, because the (valuations) are not coming up in value,” Ms Schneider said.

“Not in Brisbane, there valuers don’t seem to have a problem, but in Rockhampton they do.”

“I’ve had about three in a row that have been undervalued”.

Sydney, Melbourne buyers most active

Ms Schneider said she expected the Rockhampton market to cool in about six months’ time.

“It’s only a personal opinion but I think probably in the next six months or so, I do feel they’ll soften a little bit,” she said. 

The market continued to be driven by Melbourne and Sydney buyers. 

“Our market looks cheap compared to what they’ve got to pay down there,” Ms Schneider said. 

“But I do believe the valuers are having the final say.”

Nationwide, less expensive markets have been leading price growth, as buyers are priced out of more expensive homes. 

According to CoreLogic, in 2024, across the capital cities, the most affordable 25 per cent of homes saw the highest growth, up 9.8 per cent in the year. 

The most expensive 25 per cent of homes — those in the “upper quartile” — rose just 1.5 per cent. 

“With worsening affordability constraints and reduced borrowing capacity, we have seen buyer demand pushed towards lower priced markets,” said CoreLogic’s Research Director, Tim Lawless. 

Also delivering strong growth were the markets of Toowoomba, about 150km west of Brisbane, where home prices grew 13.5 per cent in 2024, to a median of $667,062. 

Further west, in the eastern Darling Downs, prices surged 21.2 per cent to $448,221.