Townsville strong in weak regional QLD market
The Townsville property market remains strong despite a steady deterioration of the regional Queensland market, the latest Hotspotting Price Predictor Index has found.
The Townsville property market remains strong despite a steady deterioration of the regional Queensland market, the latest Hotspotting Price Predictor Index has found.
The report by Terry Ryder, based on sales volumes as a predictor of price movement, found the regional Queensland market in June was the weakest it had been in eight years.
Mr Ryder said locations with negative assessments outnumbered the positive ones by two to one.
“The deterioration of the regional Queensland market in terms of sales activity is shown by the number of rising markets in the past six quarters: 179, 162, 156, 130, 70 and now 16,” he said.
“There are now only 16 locations (out of a total of 308) classified as rising markets, the lowest number recorded in the eight years of our quarterly surveys.”
The Hotspotting report showed Townsville’s only remaining rising market was Currajong while the region had no declining markets.
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A total of 11 Townsville suburbs were considered to be consistency markets, with steady sales numbers during the past two years, and 12 were plateau markets, where sales were no longer rising but had settled below the previous peak.
Mr Ryder said the level of consistency shown by some Queensland locations was positive news.
“In those terms, the strongest markets are Gladstone, Mackay, Toowoomba, Cairns and Townsville,” he said.
“Three months ago, those five regional cities had a significant number of suburbs classified as rising markets.
“Now there are few where sales activity is still rising but many where the number of sales has remained steady and consistent.”
Mr Ryder said 86 locations in regional Queensland had declining markets based on sales activity – half of them on the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
“Despite the ongoing decline in sales numbers, prices are generally holding up well,” he said.
Originally published as Townsville strong in weak regional QLD market