Townsville tops nation: Home prices surge 17.6pc in 12 months

Townsville has cemented its position as Australia’s strongest-performing housing market, with home values up an outstanding 17.6 per cent in the past year.

The latest PropTrack Home Price Index. out Monday, showed Townsville dwelling price growth led the nation with a 17.6 per cent jump to $569,000 – a pace that was about 3 percentage points ahead of its closest growth rival – the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region.

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Townsville has the most sizzling property price growth in the country.

PropTrack Senior Economist Eleanor Creagh said “Townsville remains the strongest performing region in Australia. That has been the case for quite some months now”.

Given rising rents and migration continuing to climb, Townsville was expected to remain one of Australia’s hottest regions for the near term.

Ms Creagh said Townsville’s growth was “really being underpinned by the comparative affordability of the region and strong population growth” – a feature stretching to other parts of North Queensland.

“When you look at these regions, they’re some of the cheapest within regional Queensland and are continuing to see strong population growth.”

This as the data showed Brisbane home prices surged $86,000 in the past year – the biggest single rise of all Aussie capitals – up 9.6 per cent annually to reach $936,000 for all dwellings (including houses and units) and a powerful testament to the Queensland capital’s resilience.

REA Group senior economist Eleanor Creagh

Regional Queensland set an even hotter pace with a 9.9 per cent rise – seeing medians rise by $75,000 to $738,000 – with a shocking four of its SA4 regions topping national charts off huge double digit growth in the past year.

Townsville led the nation with its 17.6pc surge to $569,000, followed by Mackay–Isaac–Whitsunday which hit a 14.7pc rise to $565,000, Central Queensland increased 14.3pc to $547,000 and Toowoomba (west of Brisbane) was up 14.1pc to $697,000. Their closest regional rival in the rest of the country was the South East of South Australia that saw a 13.9pc increase to $525,000.

Australia has now seen eight consecutive months of growth with home prices hitting a new high nationally and records tumbling across the country as the property juggernaut shows no real sign of a slowdown.

Ms Creagh said the market upswing was being fuelled by interest rate cuts, improved buyer sentiment and stronger borrowing capacity.

She said regional Queensland was firmly in the spotlight for investors and other buyers now.

“As we enter spring, the housing market appears poised for another leg higher, albeit strengthening in some capitals while normalising in others.”

For Brisbane, this means that while growth may be moderating slightly off its blistering pace set since the pandemic, the city remains a powerful force in the housing market.

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