Land sales increase over past year

INVESTOR interest in Toowoomba land is going from strength to strength, says a prominent city real estate agent.

Colliers International’s Brad Lipp said in the past year 42 per cent of his 259 land sales were to investors.

He said investors were excited by everything that was happening in Toowoomba and the wider region.

In the past year, from May 2016 to June 2017, there was a total of 491 land sales, representing an increase of 7.7 per cent on the number of sales for the previous year.

The average price of land in Toowoomba in those 12 months was $185,000 which is 7.2% higher than the previous year, which is encouraging news.

Mr Lipp said he had seen an upswing in the number of upsizer and downsizer buyers in recent months.

He said culturally buyers weren’t looking for the big blocks any more; they were happy with 400-500sq m allotments because they don’t want to spend all weekend, every weekend in the garden.

This is the case for developer Mark Peart of PeartLand, having seen an increase in the number of first home buyers purchasing from his business Toowoomba Turnkey Homes.

He attributes this to the tougher lending criteria banks were imposing on borrowers, as well an an attitude from young people to want to be able to move into a new home immediately, instead of waiting for months for their new homes to be built and dealing with all the stress of construction loans.

“Completed stock is the way to go,” Mr Peart said.

“We’ve sold six turnkey homes now, and are about to start another 10.

“We’ve had great response to our two-bedroom homes and this is because young people want affordability.”

He said he had worked with builder Gordon Bourke Homes to design two-bedroom homes that are able to be economically extended to three and four-bedroom homes in years to come.

He also said a lot of young people could only afford between $290,000 and $350,000 for their first home and to buy new that meant buying a unit when in reality they would prefer a free-standing home.

“But they realise they need to get into the property market now and they can’t afford to keep renting and saving for another six or 12 months.

“So it is about affordability and about presenting an opportunity to grow into a home in time.”