Interest up for James St precinct

Bypass is good news for owners

HOUSES and buildings along Toowoomba’s former main arterial road are expected to become hot property now that the $1.6 billion bypass has opened, according to agents.

With hundreds of trucks and vehicles leaving James St thanks to the opening of the Toowoomba Bypass, LJ Hooker has reported a spike in interest and stock of properties both on and just off the main road in East and South Toowoomba.

LJ Hooker chief operating officer Jeremy Lewis said while the overall number of properties on the market in the two suburbs had dropped over the past year, he had noticed a remarkable increase of listings for houses in the vicinity of James St.

“We have noticed 17 per cent less properties on the market in East Toowoomba and South Toowoomba over the past 12 months,” he said.

“However over the last month we have noticed a 10 per cent increase of properties coming on the market around the James St precinct and streets surrounding.

“We’ve got quite a number of properties listed but not live yet on streets around James St.

“What we’ve noticed is people are waiting to see what the numbers would do before listing, and potential buyers are less concerned in the traffic on James St than before.”

The comments come after Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio said as few as 1000 trucks would use James St every day, down from the 3500 that were previously travelling down it.

Mr Lewis said he expected interest in streets like James, Maple, Murphy, Shiel, Ipswich and Suffolk would increase over the next six months.

“I think we’re expecting to see more properties listed based in the James St precinct, and a lot more interest in those properties as opposed to other pockets of East and South Toowoomba,” he said.

“We should hopefully see that drive into the marketplace.”