Mackay property: Double-digit price growth in median prices

There is significant growth happening right across the Mackay regions with suburbs recording double-digit growth, mirroring national trends. See how your suburb compares.

Double-digit price growth has been recorded across many suburbs in the Mackay region over the past 12 months, mirroring national trends.

CoreLogic’s September national home value index showed that Australian house values rose 20.3 per cent higher over the past 12 months, with a number of Mackay suburbs showing similar growth.

The REA Market Trends report for September shows significant value growth in Mackay (18.9%), Armstrong Beach (18.7%) Richmond (18.3%), East Mackay (19.2%), Hay Point (20.7%), North Mackay (23.1%) and Sarina (23.4%).

Suburbs tracking well above the national home value index data were Shoal Point at 28.9 per cent and Grasstree Beach at a whopping 32.3 per cent median price increase.

Located just across the road from the beach, this Grasstree Beach house recently sold for $695,000

The five suburbs with the lowest 12-month house price growth percentages across the Mackay region according to REA September data occurred in Ooralea (-2.1%), Habana (2.7%), Slade Point (3.9%), Andergrove (4.3%) and Bucasia (4.6%)

The index showed that the national annual growth rate was now tracking at its fastest pace since the financial year ending June 1989, with regional Australia taking a lead in house value growth as more people look to less densely populated areas to call home.

This Bucasia house is on the market for offers over $539,000

However, CoreLogic’s national home value index data for September showed an easing of growth rates back to 1.5 per cent, from a peak in March at 2.8 per cent.

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said he believed the slowing growth conditions were the result of higher barriers to entry for non-homeowners along with fewer government incentives to enter the market.

“With housing values rising substantially faster than household incomes, raising a deposit has become more challenging for most cohorts of the market, especially first home buyers,” Mr Lawless said.

“Sydney is a prime example where the median house value is now just over $1.3 million. In order to raise a 20 per cent deposit, the typical Sydney house buyer would need around $262,300.

“Existing homeowners looking to upgrade, downsize or move home may be less impacted as they have had the benefit of equity that has accrued as housing values surged.”

“The slowdown in first home buyers can be seen in the lending data, where the number of owner occupier first homebuyer loans has fallen by -20.5 per cent between January and July. Over the same period, the number of first home buyers taking out an investment housing loan has increased, albeit from a low base, by 45 per cent, suggesting more first home buyers are choosing to ‘rent vest’ as a way of getting their foot in the door.”

This acreage property in North Mackay could be yours for $960,000

That reality in metropolitan centres could suggest an additional factor contributing to the uptick over 2020-21 in migration of owner-occupier buyers to regional centres such as Mackay, alongside the stability offered by low unemployment rates and dramatically fewer COVID-19 related lockdowns.