Market on the rise

Toowoomba tops the state for real estate success despite virus

TOOWOOMBA’S real estate market has defied the odds of experts everywhere, who believed the pandemic would wreak havoc on the market.

The Garden City has, however, pulled out astounding results despite the challenges this year.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland CEO Antonia Mercorella said this year had been tough but the market had remained in good shape. “The fact is, Queensland’s residential property market continues to show remarkably stable results, with the first full quarterly COVID-19 property price report giving Queenslanders a comprehensive look at how the pandemic has affected our State’s housing market,” she said.

“Restrictions on auctions and open homes coupled with border closures, restricting interstate buyers as well as international investors, have certainly proved challenging for our market.

“To counter this, the real estate industry proved itself highly agile, adapting to technology substitutes in place of live auctions and physical property inspections at almost lightning speed.

“And buyers and sellers were equally quick to embrace it.”

An REIQ report revealed the city’s house, unit and land markets were all in the top three performers for major locations over the period. Toowoomba remains extremely affordable which has strengthened its appeal with both owner-occupiers and first home buyers in particular, who have been quick to move on both new builds and vacant land thanks to the Home builder grant.

The report showed Toowoomba’s unit market remained healthy with a median price increase of +3.2 per cent bringing the median price to almost $304,000.

Toowoomba was also the best performing major region for vacant land, with a median price increase of +2.9 per cent.

The Toowoomba house market was one of the strongest of all major regions over the June quarter, recording an increase of +1.4 per cent to $360,000.

meg.gannon@thechronicle.com.au