There's more to Queensland's red hot property market than Brisbane

Regional Queensland property values are continuing to surge, extending a multi-year stellar run, and the good times appear far from over.

In Toowoomba, about 150km west of Brisbane, prices boomed 21.6 per cent over the past year, according to analyst Cotality, while prices in North Queensland’s Cairns and Townsville also continued their golden run.

Brian Gray, Principal of Toowoomba’s Picket Fence Properties, said listings remained “very tight”, with strong interest from both owner-occupiers and investors, with some southern investors buying sight unseen.

“I receive almost daily calls or emails from buyers agents,” Mr Gray told Australian Property Investor Magazine.

“They have pre-approved clients ready to go, and move from region to region to fit their budgets.”

According to Cotality, Toowoomba’s dwelling price growth was the highest in regional Queensland (defined as all areas outside greater Brisbane), with the median dwelling value now at $842,467.

Statewide regional property price growth

Further north, prices also continued to surge.

The towns of Charters Towers, Ayr and Ingham, outside of Townsville, delivered growth of 17.6 per cent over the year, taking the median dwelling value to $380,762.

In the Central Highlands, in Central Queensland, prices surged 18.6 per cent in the year, to a median of $363,727.

Todd Brandon, Property Partner of The Agency Central Queensland, who covers Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast, said despite some cooling, the market remained strong.

“There’s still strong growth, we’re countercyclical to the capitals, we are still very cheap, the yields are very good and it’s a great place to buy,” he told API Magazine.

“It’s not as aggressive as it was, but only in the last three or four weeks I would say I’ve seen a little bit of an adjustment from buyers, whereby the capital growth has slowed a little bit.

“I don’t think we could have continued to have the growth seen over the past little while, which was among the strongest in the country,” Mr Brandon said.

But fundamentals remained strong.

“It will still grow because we are still good value, and yields and infrastructure continue to improve here, and we have been awarded the rowing in the Olympics in 2032, which will be a nice push,” he said.

“There’s also a new ring-road for all heavy vehicles, which will be a nice relief for the traffic in town.”

Mr Brandon, who said he moved to the region from the Gold Coast over 20 years ago, said lifestyle factors and low prices were major drawcards.

“Liveability here is incredible, yields are strong and its affordable,” he said.

Investors typically sought newer brick buildings, because they were viewed as requiring less maintenance, Mr Brandon said.

The most expensive established suburbs were dominated by existing wooden Queenslander-style houses.

“If you look at The Range, our most prestigious suburb, it’s full of timber homes,” Mr Brandon said.

“The Range is elevated, it’s close to the CBD, the hospital, the grammar schools.”

Closing in on WA, SA

According to analyst PropTrack, dwelling values in regional Queensland grew 14.1 per cent in the year to 31 March. Like Cotality, it defines as regional all dwellings outside the capital city of each state.

The only regional market to perform better was in booming Western Australia, where prices grew 15.9 per cent.

Nationwide, regional values outperformed.

“Regional prices climbed 0.4 per cent in March and were up 11.0 per cent year-on-year,” PropTrack’s senior analyst Eleanor Creagh said.

“Regional growth has outpaced the capitals over the past year (11.0 per cent vs 8.8 per cent) and five years (57 per cent vs 39 per cent).”

In March, for the regional markets, the latest figures show Queensland and South Australia led the way, each notching up 0.6 per cent growth in dwelling prices in the month.

In the same period, median prices in regional Western Australia grew 0.2 per cent.

Over the past five years regional WA recorded the strongest dwelling price growth, at 97.1 per cent, followed by regional South Australia (95.4 per cent) and regional Queensland (86.3 per cent).

Mr Gray said Toowoomba, a city of 186,000, was unusual in that it had just one postcode, while some Brisbane postcodes were home to as few as 5,000 people.

That meant median house price figures could be misinterpreted when examined at the postcode level.

He said most in demand were homes in East Toowoomba, which were highly sought-after.

Mr Gray said people seeing strong price growth were tempted to sell but realised they would then also be buying in a strong market.

“Next door sells for a certain amount and people think that’s amazing,” he said.

“I think people have cottoned on to the fact that even if they sold in a good market, they still have to buy in a strong market.

“A lot of people ring out of desperation and say ‘our property is settling in three months, do you have anything?’,” Mr Gray said.

He said he received calls from people seeking “off-market properties”.

“That’s a very cliched thing, off-market properties,” he said. 

“That’s sellers who don’t want to pay for marketing, telling agents ‘if you can get me X, I will sell it’.

“A lot of agents are desperate for listings.”