Steady growth in Garden City

QUEENSLAND’S south west region, including Toowoomba, Ipswich and Warwick, has a consistent real estate market with most indicators revealing steady positive growth over the past 12 months and five years.

Even though the Toowoomba median house price slipped by just 0.8% over the past 12 months, to an annual median of $350,000, looking over the past five years this market is still holding on to strong growth, adding 21.1% since March 2012.

Median days on market in Toowoomba have increased by 10 days, from 44 days in February 2016 to 54 days in February 2017.

This positions Toowoomba’s median as higher than the state median of 45 days, but better than most regional markets, including Gladstone (88 days), Bundaberg (67 days), Rockhampton (82 days), and Mackay (69 days).

The Ipswich median house price has grown 2.8% over the past 12 months to $330,000 and this market also showed strong growth in the quarter, jumping 4.4% to $344,500.

Demand for housing in Ipswich is steady, thanks to its affordability and reasonable proximity to the Brisbane CBD.

Improving road systems, such as the imminent $400 million upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway, means commuters are facing more efficient commutes to Brisbane and this drives demand for Ipswich property. Median days on market have shortened from 50 days last February to 42 days this February, which is shorter than the state median of 45 days.

Warwick’s housing market has shown good growth, increasing 3.1% over the past 12 months to an annual median house price of $250,000. This is 4.2% higher than five years ago.

The state-wide apartment trend in almost every Queensland market has begun to soften, to varying degrees. The apartment markets in Toowoomba (-0.6%) and Ipswich (up by 0.2%) have been pretty resilient for the past year to withstand state-wide contraction trends.