Queensland Property Investment: Where homes sell faster than anywhere else in regional Australia

Toowoomba has the fastest selling properties in regional Australia.

Vendors in the Queensland city need only 13 days to secure a buyer, research shows.

The supercharged market in Toowoomba is the regional winner for time on market, measured from April last year to April this year, followed by the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, which clocked in at 16 days on the market before a sale, CoreLogic data shows.

A typical campaign period is about four weeks, from launch until auction or end of a period for negotiation.

CoreLogic’s findings, in its quarterly Regional Market Update, mirrors the broader data and sentiment that Queensland’s market has flourished through the pandemic, stoked by southern-state buyers chasing sun, space and affordability.

With about 123,000 residents, Toowoomba is the second most-populated inland city, behind Canberra, and is known for its architecture and rich streetscapes, which includes the art deco picture palace, the Empire Theatre, and the grand city hall.

Toowoomba agent Rob Murphy, principal of Belle Property, said the market has been driven by the forces low supply and high demand.

He listed a pretty two-bedroom cottage at 199 Bridge Street, North Toowoomba, two days ago, and has taken 18 enquiries from prospective buyers. This swell of interest was typical of the urgency in the market these days, Mr Murphy said.

He said for the first time in his 20-year career, he has sold Toowoomba properties to first-home buyers priced out of Brisbane, and successful farmers have also purchased investment properties or places for their children to live in while they attend schools in the city.

Mr Murphy said Toowoomba had a strong set of economic and social attributes, including three hospitals, military job opportunities (the Lavarack Barracks are the largest Australian Army base) and businesses that supported agriculture, such as machinery supplies.

“Toowoomba is not a country town,” he said. “We have a very strong education system, and quality, high-end schools with boarding systems in place.

“We have more on the market than we did six months ago, but the demand has outweighed the supply and has kept the market moving in a positive direction.”

The median house price in Toowoomba is broken down into regions.

In the city centre, it is $445,000 – and increase of 15 percent in the past year, according to Domain data. In East Toowoomba, the rise over the past 12 months has been 15.7 percent, to $671,250 for a median-priced house.

North Toowoomba is cheaper with a median of $396,500 – a lift of 7.4 percent.

South Toowoomba’s median house price is $418,000, which is 14.7 percent more than a year ago.

The apartment market, for which there was only two sets of data available, has been more volatile.

East Toowoomba units dropped to a median of $311,750 – down 31 percent in a year – and unit prices in South Toowoomba flatlined, with 0.8 per cent growth to hit a median of $335,000, Domain results show.