Gracemere named most popular location for house sales in Queensland

A town of 12,000 has been named as the most popular location for property sales in the latest quarter. See stats for your suburb here.

Gracemere has been named most popular location for house sales in Queensland. Photo: Orin Lucke - Blink Photography

It was once a mostly rural town with large house blocks and popular with farmers but over the last few decades Gracemere has evolved into a booming town full of young families.

Traditionally, property has always been a bit cheaper at Gracemere, than Rockhampton which is a 10km drive down the highway.

Interest in property in Gracemere however has skyrocketed in recent years so much so that it was named Queensland’s most popular location for house sales in a recent property report.

The InfoTrack property market update for quarter three named the top 10 locations with the highest volume of house sales from July 1 to September 30.

New house development in Gracemere in 2010. Zamia Way is pictured at the bottom of the image.

Gracemere took out the top spot, followed by Redbank Plains in Ipswich and Kirwan in Townsville.

More than half of the Gracemere properties sold during that period, 52 per cent, were between $300,000 and $400,000.

It is the second consecutive quarter Gracemere has appeared in the top 10, moving from sixth place in quarter two.

InfoTrack’s Head of Property Australia Lee Bailie said Gracemere is an attractive choice for people wanting bigger properties with more space to raise a family.

“Its proximity to Rockhampton means an abundance of job opportunities in the agricultural and transport sectors – and the town is home to one of the largest cattle sales facilities in the southern hemisphere,” she said.

Graph of Rockhampton region property sales for the month of October.

Gracemere took out the top sales for the Rockhampton region again for the month of October.

There were 23 properties sold and the median price was $370,000.

HISTORY OF GRACEMERE

Gracemere was named after the Gracemere pastoral station, established by Charles and William Archer in 1855, after their brother’s wife.

The first population was recorded in 1881 with 64 persons and then 226 in 1901.

The Gracemere State School, which still stands today and celebrated 150 years in 2021, was established in 1871.

A granite quarry was founded in 1916.

It was mostly a country town throughout the 1900s, with two storekeepers, a hotel, a butcher and fruiterer recorded in 1924.

The livestock saleyard was built in 1953 and is now the largest in the southern hemisphere.

An aerial view of Gracemere taken in 1962.

The population started to really grow around the 1980s, with 1,236 persons in 1981, compared to 292 in 1976.

By 1991 the population was 3403.

The growth was mostly due to the construction of the Stanwell Power Station in 1984.

A catholic primary school and second state school were added in 1988 and 1987.

The magnesite treatment plant was built next to the power station in 2001 and the population swelled to 4463 persons.

By 2011, the population was 8401 and to accommodate the growing community, the Gracemere Shopping World was opened in 2014 with Woolworths and Best and Less as the anchor stores.

*population figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics

FUTURE GROWTH FOR GRACEMERE

Gracemere recorded a population of 12,031 persons in 2021, an impressive leap compared to the population recorded 20 years earlier in 2001 of 4,454.

According to the Rockhampton Regional Council‘s Economic Profile by Economy.id, which uses a mix of ABS and Census data for its projections, Gracemere is expected to only grow further with 14,756 persons in 2031, an increase of 4.8 per cent, according to economic .id

In 2021 there were 4,654 dwellings and in 2031 there are predicted to be 5,885, the economic profile data states.

Of the homes recorded in 2021, 22.4 per cent were owner-occupied, 34 per cent were purchasing and 37.9 per cent were renting.

ROCKHAMPTON REGION PROPERTY SALE OCTOBER DATA

In October there were 101 houses, seven units, three land, two apartments and two acreage property sales in the Rockhampton region.

The cheapest house was at 246 Denison Lane, Rockhampton City for $205,000 and the most expensive was 62 Nielsen Ave, Glenlee for $885,000, seconded by an apartment at The Edge for $860,000.

Originally published as Gracemere named most popular location for house sales in Queensland