Suburbs that top Townsville’s new housing supply in 2024

Prospective buyers have less chance of finding affordable new builds in Townsville than they do in Sydney and Melbourne, shock new research reveals. See the top 3 suburbs to search.

Prospective buyers have less chance of finding affordable new builds in Townsville than they do in Sydney and Melbourne, shock new research reveals.

The devastating findings by PRD research show there is one affordable suburb among the Townsville’s top 3 areas for ready-to-sell unit stock, compared to 12 in Melbourne and 14 in Sydney.

The affordability was based on whether prices relative to the relevant city’s median house or unit price.

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For many future homebuyers a unit will be their only hope of affording a property.

PRD chief economist Dr Asti Mardiasmo said “what we found is if you do want to go to areas that have the most ready-to-sell stock planned, you have to be prepared to pay a premium.”

The data, which looks at suburbs with the most ready-to-sell housing stock being built this year, found 36 homes set for construction in the top three suburb results in Townsville.

But the issue isn’t just confined to Townsville, with PRD finding only nine Brisbane suburbs with affordable unit stock set for sale this year, only two suburbs in Cairns and five on the Gold Coast compared to their relative medians.

Townsville’s top suburb for ready-to-sell housing was Kirwan which has 20 units being built this year in a state project, with a median that’s in line with the LGA after a 14 per cent price rise in 2024.

The three-storey $9.63m social housing project in Kirwan is located at 687 Ross River Road – which will provide 16 one-bedroom social housing units and four two-bedroom ones. It has a construction start date of late June this year with complete estimated at August 2025.

South Townsville which has a median that’s 22.8 per cent higher than the LGA will see a $10m 12-storey building at 39 Palmer Street squeeze into 2024’s construction timeline, with 12 four-bedroom apartments expected to be available if work begins in mid-December.

Townsville City has four apartments in the pipeline and is priced 38.6 per cent above Townsville overall. The mixed-use project is estimated at $7.5m at 272-278 Flinders Street – with four two-bedroom units, short term accommodation, a shop and bar.

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Jon Raven, the mayor of Queensland’s fastest growing city – Logan, has 7,000 dwellings in the development pipeline and says it’s important to not just provide the “classic Australian dream of the quarter acre block” but also ensure “people who want a more affordable option get to have it near our already built-up areas around public transport”.

“During a housing crisis, the temptation is just to build houses as far as the eye can see, but houses require jobs, and places you can go shopping and have a high quality of life. You can’t just have a dormitory city. We know that doesn’t work any more, people don’t want to drive 30 minutes to a restaurant, they want 10 minutes. So we want to make sure that we’re actually providing quality of life.”

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Originally published as Suburbs that top Townsville’s new housing supply in 2024