Realtor refutes town's label as 'dangerous'

Roma listed as danger suburb to buy houses.

IDEAL BUYING: Realtor Michelle Cloherty, from Ray White Roma, objects to the Roma property market being labelled dangerous and says the housing market is open. Picture: Molly Hancock

THERE are 66 allegedly "dangerous” suburbs in Australia to buy a house and southwest towns Roma, Wandoan and Miles have been named on that list.

From crowded units in the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane inner city areas to struggling towns in regional Queensland and Northern Territory, the warning signs are clearly visible, according to hotspotting.com.au.

The property research firm's latest Price Predictor Index uses sales volumes to predict future price movements - more sales point to price increases, falling sales to price declines.

"Sales volume is a precursor to prices, that's why it's quite a valuable indicator,” Hotspotting managing director Terry Ryder said.

The report lists a total of 66 "danger” suburbs - 17 in NSW, seven in Victoria, 26 in Queensland, three in Western Australia, three in Tasmania and 10 in Northern Territory. South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory escaped unscathed.

The strongest concentrations of "danger suburbs” were in Sydney city and Parramatta areas, Brisbane and Melbourne inner cities and in regional Queensland towns of Mount Isa and Gladstone, which have eight and six danger suburbs respectively.

"Then there's still some in regional Queensland and those areas impacted by the mining sector (although) there are fewer than there were. A number of Queensland regional markets are actually showing signs of recovery,” Mr Ryder said.

The median price of houses sold in Roma was $235,000, with Miles having a median of $160,000 statistics for buying homes in Wandoan it were deemed unreliable.

Real estate agent Michelle Cloherty, from Ray White Roma, refuted claims Roma was a "risky” place to buy a house and she wouldn't hesitate to buy.

Ms Cloherty said there were a number of factors which could have contributed to Roma being listed, including being classed as a mining town and the floods.

"The property market has been difficult and there are still a lot of people looking for houses but there is an over-abundance of houses for sale.

"Hopefully, with the houses slowly ... being sold it will lift the red zone off us,” she said.

"I think the red zone came from before I was here and towns like Roma were classed as mining towns.

"We have a certain amount of mining but have other things to offer and that will help carry us through.

"There is nothing wrong with Roma.”

Originally published as Realtor refutes town's label as 'dangerous'