A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Why a house in one suburb gets you three in some others
GONE are the days when a $1 million listing in East Toowoomba was considered a rarity.
There has been a recent flurry of activity in the top end of the market, which real estate agents hope will continue in the New Year.
While there are plenty of buyers in the high-end market, the lower end remains a much slower game.
HOUSE PRICES for the top end of the market in East Toowoomba have soared in recent months, with million-dollar listings becoming the new norm.
Numerous real estate agents contacted by The Chronicle uniformly agreed there had been a price spike in the suburb which began around October.
Furthermore, Michael Teahan, Robbie Witt, Andrew Webster and Dominic Ryan said strong demand for homes in East Toowoomba was spilling over into the surrounding suburbs of Mount Lofty, North Toowoomba, and Rangeville and lifting prices.
Others, like Toby Sandell, took a more conservative view, saying recent sales showed “positive signs” for the high-end market.
While the market in the eastern side of the city “goes nuts”, as one other realtor phrased it, sub-$400,000 homes in other parts of Toowoomba are harder to sell - though agents were optimistic interest would pick up in 2018.
The past few months has seen a number of $1 million-plus sales in Toowoomba’s eastern suburbs, many of them occurring “off-market”, before agents had a chance to list them publicly.
A range of buyers, from young families to medical professionals to business people and retirees from out west, are seeking homes on large blocks, and tight supply is pushing prices skyward.
Andrew Webster from Webster Cavanagh said the majority of his clients were either young families upgrading to larger blocks and larger houses, or retiring baby boomers.
Predominantly, he said, those older retirees are farmers who have sold up and are looking to move closer to children, friends, and medical and financial services.
“They’re obviously the ones with the deepest pockets and have a desire to live somewhere handy to amenities, and with a view, because a lot of them have been looking at black soil plains for 50 years,” he said.