Queensland Property Investment: The coastal towns where prices have changed little in five years

Property prices have been soaring across Australia’s coastal towns and suburbs, but there are still some pockets where prices have not raced ahead.

House prices have grown rapidly in many sea-change destinations in recent years, skyrocketing even further in some areas amid the pandemic and rise of remote working.

In Byron Bay on the NSW’s north coast, Sunshine Beach in Noosa, and Somers on the Mornington Penisula, median house prices have more than doubled in the space of five years.

However, growth has been more subdued in other markets, Domain data shows, with prices in some suburbs and towns near the coast still back at, or close to, their 2016 levels.

Here’s our pick of some of the markets where house hunters can get into the market at a similar price to five years ago. But be warned, house prices in many of these locations are on the rise.

Cairns, QLD

While house prices in Cairns were up 16.3 per cent over the five years to June to a median of $465,000, there are suburbs a little inland with softer price growth.

Earlville, about four kilometres south-west of the city centre, recorded a median house price of $395,000 over the year to June, up about 4.1 per cent on 2016 prices.

While further south, median prices in the neighbouring suburbs of Edmonton and Bentley Park climbed 3.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively, over the five-year period.

18 Goodsell Drive, Bentley Park QLD 4869

Selling agent Therese Plath, principal of Ray White Cairns South, said there was strong demand for affordable homes in Bentley Park and Edmonton from locals looking to upsize, interstate tree-changers and investors.

At Bentley Park’s median house price of $371,250, buyers might get a four-bedroom house with one or two bathrooms, Ms Plath said but noted buyers on such a budget were increasingly having to look at three-bedroom homes due to rising prices over the past year. Edmonton’s median now sits at $366,000.

Though not directly on the coast, Bently Park and Edmonton are within a 40-minute drive of multiple beaches and 20 minutes from the Cairns Esplanade, while Earlville is about 10 minutes closer.

West End, Townsville, QLD

Further south, but still in north Queensland, prices in Townsville’s West End are now 1.8 per cent higher than 2016 prices, after the median fell 2.4 per cent over the year to June to $351,250.

Those looking to buy at the suburb’s median house price could expect to secure a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house within a 10-minute drive of Townsville’s foreshore.