Demand for properties in Cairns has soared, with interstate buyer inquiry “through the roof” and there is no sign of a slowdown from eager local buyers either.
Demand for properties in Cairns has soared, with interstate buyer inquiry “through the roof” and there is no sign of a slowdown from eager local buyers either.
As a result, luxurious mansions are selling fast, and often sight unseen, while others are being snapped up within hours or days of hitting the market.
And there are plenty more cashed-up buyers waiting in the wings for the right property to be listed, according to local agents.
Cairns, which was slow out of the gates in terms of sales activity and price growth during the current property boom, has now well and truly entered the race, achieving some eye-watering sales prices in the past six months.
The Price Predictor Index Winter (PPI) 2021 Edition by Terry Ryder from Hotspotting recently revealed that there are now 146 ‘rising’ markets across regional Queensland – up from 72 just six months ago.
“The biggest improver is Cairns, where the number of growth suburbs has risen from nine (in our survey three months ago) to 13,” the report revealed.
Those suburbs include Bayview Heights, Cairns City, Cairns North, Manoora, Manunda, Palm Cove, Port Douglas, Smithfield, Trinity Beach, Westcourt, White Rock, Whitfield and Yorkeys Knob.
REA Group economist Anne Flaherty said the Cairns region overall had seen house prices rise 7.3 per cent over the last 12 months alone, well above the annual average of 1.9 per cent seen over the past ten years.
“Properties are selling 16 per cent faster with the average number of days properties spend on the market falling from 113 to 95 days,” she said.
“Malanda, Palm Cove and Port Douglas have been the strongest performers with price growth up above 30 per cent over the past 12 months.”
REIQ Far North Queensland zone chair Tom Quaid said that at the onset of Covid-19, the local market came to an “almost complete stop”, with sellers refusing to list or pulling their properties off the market, and buyers holding off due to fears of a market crash.
“A bit over a year down the track and the dire predictions at the on-set couldn’t have been more wrong now,” he said.
“After minimal growth since the GFC, Cairns has seen its highest increase in prices in over a decade, with land estates sold out thanks to Homebuilder, homes achieving record prices in short time frames and a critical shortage of stock, not because of prices, but rather because owners are afraid to list, sell too quickly and find themselves homeless in a rising market.
“Units are still trailing the activity in the housing market but starting to fire better.”
RE/MAX Collection Cairns Beaches agent Sean Thorpe said they had recently launched 10 properties to the market, with half already under contract after receiving multiple offers and the other half scheduled to go to auction.
“We are getting smashed,” he said. “We are here until 9pm every night just dealing with buyer inquiries.
“In the last four weeks in particular, buyer inquiry from Melbourne has gone through the roof … they are just over it (lockdowns).
“I launched two properties and there were 58 inquiries over the weekend alone.
“We still have a lack of stock but there are plenty of buyers out there.”
FNQ Hot Property principal Nathan Shingles said the prestige market had improved, but he believed there was more growth to come.
“We are only at the start I believe,” he said. “We are getting a lot more inquiry from down south, Melbourne in particular.”
Mr Shingles said he would be launching three prestige properties to the market soon – a $4 million residence at Palm Cove, a $2.95 million house at Trinity Park and a $2.5 million property at Kewarra Beach.
“I have a whole database of people shopping in that category. They are just waiting for the right one,” he said.
Mr Quaid said the major concern facing the region now was the rental market, which he believes is “approaching a crisis point like much of the country” due to the lack of new development over the past decade.
“The only real solution is the introduction of new supply, and that’s going to take government support to both encourage a more orderly release of land and provide incentives for people to invest in residential property, particularly when catering for the lower end of the market which has been priced out of the majority of homes,” he said.
Article courtesy The Cairns Post 22/6/21
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