REIQ's latest report paints mixed picture for Rockhampton

Find out how your suburb's house value is tracking.

LATEST REPORT: The latest report on Rockhampton's property prices makes for mixed reading. Picture: Andy Dean Photography

ROCKHAMPTON Region's house sale statistics are a tale of winners in some suburbs and losers in others.

The latest REIQ's Queensland Market Monitor report for the June Quarter, shows Rockhampton remains the most affordable of all the regions in the statistics.

Over the past quarter, Rockhampton's average house value slid 1.9 per cent, and 2.7 per cent for the year, dropping from $273,500 to $266,000.

PRICE COMPARISON: REIQ's Queensland Market Monitor June 2018 CQ's house sales. Picture: REIQ

Of the star-performing suburbs over the past year, The Range led the way with 13.4 per cent growth in house value, followed by Park Avenue with 9.3 per cent and Kawana with 1.8 per cent.

The remaining Rockhampton suburbs recorded losses to property values, with Allenstown the worst at -19.6 per cent followed by Berserker on -10.3 per cent and Koongal with -7.7 per cent.

This mixed news for property values was offset by good news for the rental vacancy rate.

The report noted Rockhampton's rental vacancies "fell to healthy levels for the first time in five years, to reach three per cent in June 2018”.

Added to this, "rents have also generally trended upwards for the past year”.

PRICE COMPARISON: Quarterly change in house sales for Rockhampton and Livingstone. Picture: REIQ

REIQ said the future for the local sales and rental market would be challenging.

"The REIQ hopes the house market will stabilise over the months ahead,” the report said.

"However, any substantial market recovery remains heavily dependent on the strength of the regional economic fundamentals.

"The high level of unemployment has been one of the factors limiting the recovery of the property market. It has also limited a higher percentage of home owners compared to the state.”

Once key infrastructure projects went ahead, jobs and the property market were expected to improve.

Key projects:

• $66 million in 2018-19 out of a $352 million to support the construction of the 76,000 megalitre Rookwood Weir on the Fitzroy River. This will be a drought contingency supply for Rockhampton, Gladstone and Yeppoon. This project has taken one step forward with the announcement of Sunwater as a proponent in early July this year.
• $40 million for the duplication of the Bruce Highway between the Rockhampton-Yeppoon Road intersection and Terranova Drive
• $15.7 million to continue the Rockhampton hospital carpark development
• $10.9 million to duplicate the Capricorn Highway from Rockhampton to Gracemere
• $9 million to complete improvements to intersections and road train access on Rockhampton-Yeppoon Road, and
• $5 million to deliver a mixed-use development within the Rockhampton CBD.

Other Rockhampton market trends:

• The busiest price range is for houses below $350,000, and this price point represents more than 75 per cent of the total volume of house sales.
• Market trend indicators revealed a market beginning to stabilise with falling supply and the suggestion that demand seems to be increasing.
• Listings fell 27.3 per cent for the year to May 2018, supporting a fall on the stock on market from 10 per cent in May 2017 to 7.3 per cent in May 2018. This fall reduces the available stock for potential buyers to choose from.
• Median days on market shortened from 78 days in May 2017 to 68 days in May 2018. Similarly, median vendor discount reduced from 9.1 per cent in May 2017 to 8.5 per cent in May this year.

Originally published as REIQ's latest report paints mixed picture for Rockhampton