Wide Bay new property listings surpass most other regions

Demand from migration and record low rental vacancies are driving state-leading volumes of new property listings across the Wide Bay and Burnett.

Listings of new properties for sale in Wide Bay surpassed all Queensland regions apart from Gold Coast in February.

Listings of new properties for sale in the Wide Bay surpassed all Queensland regions apart from Gold Coast, according to new data.

The PropTrack Listings Report for February 2023 revealed new listings for Wide Bay comprised 14.7 per cent of all Queensland listings, second only to the Gold Coast at 23.1 per cent

While new listings have been increasing throughout regional Queensland, the data shows property market activity is picking up at a faster rate in Wide Bay compared to other regions.

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In November 2022 Logan - Beaudesert, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast all surpassed Wide Bay as a proportion of Queensland listings.

All these regions now have a lower proportion of state-wide new listings than Wide Bay for February.

According to Justin Mayberry, principal of First National Real Estate Bundaberg, the market activity though the beginning of 2023 has been busier than usual.

“Usually January and February is really quiet - people spend too much over Christmas and then hold back,” Mr Mayberry said.

“This year it actually kicked the trend for us and went the other way.”

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Mr Mayberry said the increased activity was due to two factors contributing to a favourable climate for developers in which they were regularly gaining a 6 per cent return on their investment.

The appeal of Bundaberg as one of the top regional locations for people migrating from other metropolitan and regional locations has it earmarked as a growth area, similar to the Sunshine Coast of 20 years ago.

First National Real Estate Bundaberg’s Justin Mayberry.

Bundaberg’s status as a destination in demand means developers have a keen list of buyers for properties they put on the market.

“We’re in a really unusual position where we‘ve got lots of people wanting to live here, because we’ve got a great climate and plenty of jobs,” Mr Mayberry said.

“We’ve got pretty good industry up this way - the agriculture, health side of things, and then everything in between.”

On a less positive note, the activity is also being driven by the unprecedented low vacancy rates throughout Queensland.

“Unfortunately the rental crisis in Bundaberg is driving a lot of that as well,” Mr Mayberry said.

“An investor is looking at the market going well, ‘I can pick something relatively cheap and get a good rental price out of it’ and the numbers just add up for them.”

While the data shows an encouraging short-term trend for Wide Bay property developers, the volume of new listings still lags behind the same period in 2022.

The new listings for Wide Bay in February 2023 are 16.7 per cent lower than in 2022.