Western markets proving popular

There’s been a shift in the attitude of buyers, and they’re no longer bargaining from 20 per cent off the list price

THE property market across the Darling Downs and Maranoa regions is booming, with many areas recording double digit growth over the past 12 months.

New data from property researcher CoreLogic has revealed only a handful of suburbs across the region recorded negative growth in their house price index.

Roma topped the charts in growth over the past 12 months, with a 23 per cent increase in their house price index, followed by Chinchilla at 22 per cent and Killarney with 21.6 per cent growth.

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said trends in the western Queensland markets reveal a change in fortunes in recent years.

“Trends in the data show these regions have been on a long running growth cycle after about five years ago where there was quite a slump,” he said.

“What we’re seeing now is a strong trend in places like Roma and Chinchilla of these regions coming out of what’s been a long downturn.”

Mr Lawless said many of these regions were benefiting from a boom in resource projects, which has resulted in an increase in economic activity.

While the CoreLogic data shows a 3.8 per cent decline in the house price index in Dalby, 1 Property Centre director Peter Forbes said it does not

TIM LAWLESS

reflect how busy they’ve been.

“The property market here has been going down the last ten years realistically, but in the past six months we’ve seen a noticeable change in the other direction,” he said.

“There’s been a shift in the attitude of buyers, and they’re no longer bargaining from 20 per cent off the list price, the margins are becoming pretty close to the list price.

“The mentality has changed completely, there is more urgency.”

While Mr Forbes said he has been “scratching his head” trying to explain the shift in mentality, he believes it’s a combination of the affordability of Dalby and Covid-19.

“I think we all expected that Covid would be a negative but it’s been a positive,” he said.

“People have come to realise they can work from home and still be productive, and buying in a market like Dalby means they get more bang for their buck compared to bigger places such as Toowoomba.”