REVEALED: Valuer's report into land prices released

Commercial and rural properties fund some support in land values

Land values in the Mackay region have fallen. Picture: Lee Constable

LAND values have fallen by an average of 8.6% in the Mackay region, but it's not all bad news.

According to the latest Valuer-General's 2017 Property Market Movement Report, the value of land in Mackay decreased by an average of 8.6%, surpassed by only Rockhampton (-8.7%) and Gladstone (-20.6%) in this year's valuations.

The Valuer-General's office valued 28 local government areas in 2017. These valuations are used to calculate Mackay Regional Council rates.

"Mackay, the Bowen Basin's major industry support area, continued to feel the impact of the resource recession," the report states.

"All urban property markets experienced at least minor reductions, the hardest hit being multi-unit and development markets."

The value drop is even worse in small mining communities, with some land values dropping up to $2000 a week.

"Property values have reduced in the mining towns of Bowen, Collinsville, Capella, Blackwater and Bluff," the report stated.

"The improved residential property market in many towns has dropped 30-50% from the peak values of 2013.

"The residential rental market reduced from up to $2000 per week in some towns to significantly lower levels."

The multi-unit market in Mackay has fallen by 12.6% to $241million.

However, there were some sectors that were not as affected by the mining downturn in Mackay.

Commercial property values were down just 2.7% and farmland just 0.4% lower.

Of all the local government areas in this year's valuation, Mackay is the only one that had a negative result in rural properties.

The worse affected was industrial land, which fell by 14.5%, to $395 million.

Local government areas property values (average price in dollars);

• Mackay - residential (142,000) down 9.8%; rural residential (160,000) down 8.6%
• Whitsunday - residential (104,000) down 8%; rural residential (170,000) down 1.5%
• Bundaberg - residential (116,000) up 1.8%; rural residential (98,500) down 5.3%
• Townsville - residential (143,000) down 2.1%; rural residential (190,000) steady 0%
• Rockhampton - residential (105,000) down 9.5%; rural residential (140,000) down 11.1%
• Brisbane - residential (430,000) up 10.3%; rural residential (640,000) up 4.9%

Originally published as REVEALED: Valuer's report into land prices released