Article printed in The Cairns Weekend Post Saturday 15th October 2011
The data's in on our best performing areas: Cairns real estate agents see a glimmer of hope that the property market slump could be turning a corner.
Latest RP Data figures offer pockets of optimism among the backdrop of doom and gloom. The numbers don’t lie.
Sales of houses in Mooroobool have seen a 21 per cent increase in median price for the quarter to July 2011. Another standout suburb, Trinity Beach, has seen the median price for a house settle at $375,000 for the same time period. And fashionable Edge Hill continues to perform well with a positive 3.6 per cent quarterly change, taking its median price to $445,000.
Ray White Cairns Beaches principal Paul Stirling, who like many Cairns agents, supplies his sales figures to RP Data – the real estate industry watermark – said an increase in strong sale figures, compared with this time last year, provided a confident platform for the industry.
"Our volume of sales per month has increased compared to the first six months of the year," Mr Stirling told The Weekend Post.
"We were averaging 13 sales a month and now we’re averaging 16 sales a month and 50 per cent of our sales market has been shared at Trinity Beach. Our core suburbs at the moment are, obviously Trinity Beach, Kewarra and Clifton beaches, Palm Cove, Trinity Park and Smithfield.
"Rents are rising. Just this week we had a five-bedroom house at Kewarra Beach, which vacated and was renting for $440 a week, and we’ve since got new tenants in and they’re paying $460 a week. So we’re seeing a $20 rise in some rental properties.
"With rents rising, this is stabilising the market and it’s having a positive effect on house values.
"We’re getting a large number of inquiries from the medical profession coming through as the Cairns Base Hospital starts to fill more and more positions in line with the expansion. We’re also getting a lot of inquiries from the LNG project in PNG and a lot of these people are purchasing.
"I strongly believe we’ll definitely be over the worst, if we haven’t already passed it now, by this time next year. I can see a strong future ahead of us in the next 12 months, it’s certainly going to be a lot better."
Mr Stirling said he wasn’t surprised to discover the "much sought after" Trinity Beach was one of the top performing suburbs with 89 houses sold in 12 months to July 2011.
"Trinity Beach also includes the Bluewater precinct, which is offering great house and land packages, but the general Trinity Beach area is a popular well-serviced area, which makes it extremely appealing to the family market," he said.
Cairns Property Office principal Greg Moule said "attractive prices" were drawing buyers to city fringe suburbs such as Mooroobool and Brinsmead.
"There is no doubt that there’s attractive buying out there and we’ve seen houses in the Mooroobool and Manunda areas selling in the high 200s," he said.
"They may be old but because it’s so close to the city, and a lot of families are now down to one car and they want to save on as much as they can in tough times, these areas make very attractive buying."
RP Data is the No. 1 provider of property information and analytics in Australia. Cairns real estate agents are not obligated to contribute their sales figures to RP Data.
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Peter Musso - Ray White Cairns Beaches - Property agent selling real estate in Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach
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