Gympie, Fraser Coast, Bundaberg among 10 best regional Qld real estate spots

A hot property market across the Wide Bay will continue to gain momentum into the new year according to leading real estate experts. These are the three rising star markets to watch.

A scorching hot Wide Bay property market in 2021 is showing no signs of cooling down anytime soon, leading real estate experts say.

Gympie, Dundowran Beach and Bundaberg East have been named among the best suburbs to invest in 2022 in the latest Rising Stars Australian Property Market report.

The report, compiled by online real estate experts Hotspotting in conjunction with financial comparison group Canstar, ranked the three Wide Bay patches among the 10 most promising areas in regional Queensland which was ranked in the report as the second best place in Australia for future capital growth.

It was pipped for the top spot by Regional New South Wales.

Hotspotting founder Terry Ryder said Gympie’s thriving market was being driven by its proximity to the hugely popular Sunshine Coast housing market.

The report says the surging interest in regional areas is “largely thanks to the ‘exodus to affordable lifestyle’ trend which is creating high demand and rising prices in the smaller capital cities and major regional centres”.

Gympie’s thriving popularity was the result of its relative affordability and upgrades to the Bruce Highway, the report says.

“Sales levels have doubled in the past year and the rate of price growth is increasing,” the report says.

“Vacancies are very low and rents are rising in Gympie.”

The median house price in Gympie has jumped 19.8 per cent in the past year, and now sits at $325,000.

Hotspotting founder Terry Ryder said Gympie was “attracting big buyer demand as an affordable alternative to the Sunshine Coast, which is one of the nation’s boom markets”.

“The Sunshine Coast has become expensive for buyers and Gympie, about 50km north with upgraded motorway links in between the two locations, offers homes at half the price,” Mr Ryder said.

Further north, at Hervey Bay, growing demand at the upper end of the market had put Dundowran Beach on the “rising stars” map.

Median house prices in Gympie have increased 19.8 per cent in the past year.

Dundowran Beach’s median is $660,000 thanks to a 16.8 per cent increase in the past year, the report says.

“The Hervey Bay market is booming, with many suburbs recording median price growth above 20 per cent in the past 12 months, but is early in its growth cycle, with more price rises to come,” Mr Ryder said.

Bundaberg East is the beneficiary of significant government investment in the region including a planned $1.5 billion hospital.

“With sales activity taking off, there is inevitable pressure on prices in suburbs like Bundaberg East, where the median house price remains below $300,000, for now,” the report says.

Bundaberg Region East’s median house price hit $290,000 on the back of an almost 20 per cent increase this past year.

Bundaberg East’s median house price has jumped to $290,000 on the back of a 19.8 per cent one-year rise.

“Bundaberg is a market on the rise, driven by the strength of its local economy, a major upcoming infrastructure spend and its affordable lifestyle,” Mr Ryder said.

“Bundaberg East is one of the affordable suburbs leading the price growth that‘s strongly emerging in the Bundaberg market.”

Burleigh Waters, Centenary Heights, Little Mountain, Newtown, Norman Gardens, Paradise Point and Southport rounded out the top 10 list for regional Queensland.