Price report is news to local agents

REAL estate agents are surprised at a recent report showing the price of housing in Mission Beach had increased slightly since 2014.

Median house prices on the Cassowary Coast were severely impacted by Cyclone Yasi in 2011 but Herron Todd White’s June Cairns Watch report revealed prices were on the rise.

“House sales in the Cassowary Coast Region have been rebuilding slowly in volume from the 20-year low experienced in 2011, which coincided with the market disruption caused by Cyclone Yasi,” report author Rick Carr wrote.

“Nevertheless, it appears that since 2014 the median house price has tended to increase slightly in Mission Beach, while it has been relatively constant in Innisfail over the same period.

“However the median house prices measured in Cardwell and Tully have tended to reduce.”

But Ray White sales agent Dick Williams said if there had been a lift it would be “very minor”.

“We’re expecting them to rise because they’ve been flat for a long time and we’ve been bumping along the bottom,” he said.

Andersons Real Estate owner Lyn Anderson said she had not noticed an increase in prices since 2014.

Husband and business partner Grahame said an influx of development in the region was “certainly a positive sign” for Mission Beach.

Cassowary Coast Regional Council Division 3 representative Wayne Kimberley said the news should create some posi- tivity but was not good news for new buyers.

“Mission Beach prices were historically high and came down to an affordable price. We are seeing more and more investors coming in to the area but there are also a lot of bargains,” he said.

After reporting that Cairns’ property market had slipped back to bottom of the market conditions in May, Cairns Watch author Mr Carr said conditions had improved.

“Our dilemma in Cairns has been that the increased volumes of sales and the rising prices experienced in 2014 and 2015 have tapered off, but we also accept that we are not in a classic bottom of market situation of languishing volumes and prices,” he wrote.

“This month we have amended our clock to place Cairns at a steady state position, taking account of the currently static market climate of steady volumes of sales, generally stable though sometimes volatile prices (static, up or down), and differentials in market performance between locations and sectors.”