Economy on the up with projects boom

TOWNSVILLE’S economy is “in definite recovery” with a big increase in job advertisements and some increase in median home values, according to a report.

The Herron Todd White Townsville in Focus report continues to place the residential sector at the start of recovery, rather than as a rising market.

“Townsville’s residential property markets continue to gain in sentiment and to consolidate but still remain cemented at the start of recovery phase,” the report says.

HTW Townsville director Jason Searston said the city had a “two- handed” market.

“On the one hand, we have a market that is being negatively impacted by insolvencies and liquidations from the tough economic times that Townsville experienced in 2016 and 2017,” Mr Searston said. “But on the other hand, we have major projects under way including the Townsville Stadium, Ross River Solar Farm and Haughton pipeline duplication.

“Helped by these and other mooted projects, the economy is in definite recovery.”

Mr Searston said the year ahead was likely to see continuing improving economic conditions, feeding through to increasingly positive property market sentiment.

The report says the trend in the number of jobs being advertised in December 2017 had increased by a very healthy 30 per cent compared with De- cember 2016, which bodes well for a continuation of net employment creation during the coming year.

On house prices, the report says Townsville’s median price has rebounded from the declines observed in early 2017, rising to $ 332,000 for houses sold in December 2017.

But this was still a 1.5 per cent fall from December 2016.

“In our view, individual property values have been generally static over the last 12 months with the change in median prices caused by compositional factors such as high levels of mortgagee- in- possession sales,” the report says.

“There are also wide disparities in the market, with sale values being achieved in the better regarded suburbs often coming in at the upper range of expectations, while values elsewhere continue to struggle.”

The median vacant land price fell 3.7 per cent to $ 148,000 in the half year to December, reflecting compositional change to affordable product and aggressive land pricing and incentives by some developers to move stock.