Revealed: The Qld suburbs where boom buyers are selling up

Queensland regions recording a rise in the number of homeowners selling up within three years have been highlighted as potential new hunting grounds for buyers.

Exclusive data from PropTrack reveals boom buyers put out the ‘for sale’ sign once again in parts of the state where the share of short-turnaround sales hit close to 30 per cent of all transactions.

But buyers hoping to bag a bargain could be out of luck as speedy sellers were more likely reaping the rewards of huge capital growth than jumping off a mortgage cliff.

The biggest rise in swift resales was in the Wide Bay region, encompassing the cities of Bundaberg, Gympie, Hervey Bay and Maryborough, where the short-turnaround share was 28 per cent — up almost 10 per cent from 2022.

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This three-bedroom, one-bathroom house at 5 Pine Dr, Woodridge sold for $565,000.

Suburbs across the Cairns region were close behind, with 24 per cent of properties on the market having last sold less than 3 years up, an increase of 9 per cent on the typical hold period.

Four other regions saw an uptick of 7 to 8 per cent: Mackay – Isaac – Whitsunday (19.5 per cent share of total), Ipswich (22.3 per cent share) and Toowoomba (22.5 per cent share).

Brisbane’s eastern suburbs had the river city’s largest portion, about 22 per cent – up 5 per cent from last year, while nearly 25 per cent of Gold Coast listings were last purchased since 2020, also 5 per cent more than in 2022.

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Bargara was a pandemic hot spot. This home at 70 Moodies Rd sold for $755,000.

PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore said these vendors were likely cashing in on accrued equity, rather than part of an anticipated uptick in forced sales by recent homeowners coming off fixed-rate home loans.

Wide Bay was also the strongest performing Queensland region for house price growth, up 15 per cent over the past 12 months to a median of $495,000 in July, PropTrack Market Trends report shows.

House prices increased 10 per cent in both Cairns and Ipswich over the same period to $530,000 and $550,000 respectively.

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A five-bedroom home at 11 Hunter St, Bundaberg South sold for $595,000.

“These are areas where prices have held up fairly well, which is consistent with a pattern of people selling sooner in regions where those higher prices have been achieved as vendors are looking to upgrade off the back of having more equity,” Mr Moore said.

Harcourts Ignite Hervey Bay agent Cathie Dawson said the typical turnaround of between 3 and 5 years for properties in the region provided opportunities for buyers seeking an affordable entry into the lifestyle market.

“We’re finding a lot of people from interstate come up here and think it’s a magical place to live, which it is, and they think their family and friends from Victoria or New South Wales are going to visit them, but when visitors don’t come up as often these newer buyers find they miss their family and so they end up putting their home back on the market,” Ms Dawson said.

“This is a lifestyle destination and we still have that influx of people coming up here, but because there was such an influx through Covid-19 there is now the opportunity for buyers to secure a property that has come on the market more frequently than in Brisbane, for example.”

Ms Dawson said investors were targeting units with waterviews along the beachfront esplanade which were selling from around $430,000.

“I haven’t seen any forced sales, but I have seen people reducing their asking price. Properties are staying on the market a little bit longer and sellers are open to negotiating,” she said.

The latest Herron Todd White (HTW) report found an overall increase in listings could lead to a decline in home values, despite last quarter’s broader recovery.

Home values in Brisbane ended June just 0.81 per cent below April 2022’s record level across all dwellings, recording 0.08 per cent growth in one month, PropTrack’s most recent Home Price Index found.

“Signs of stress in mortgage borrowers are being closely watched including via reduced savings and spending, increasing arrears and through increased property listings,” HTW’s national residential director Ben Esau said.

“Throughout the second half of the year, new listings may become a key metric to watch as they’re currently below long-term averages. If we see increases – particularly in certain geographic or market sectors – this could lead to sharper declines in values.”

Article source: Queensland Property Investor