WHAT ARE THE CURRENT MARKET CONDITIONS?

On Tuesday 19 April, 2011 commencing at 6:00pm Ray White Cairns Beaches will host another of its highly popular 'Sellers Information Seminars'.

A number of qualified guest speakers including valuers and industry analysts will cover a range of topics and questions from the floor.

The night aims to provide property sellers and buyers alike with the information that they require in order to make informed and educated decisions within the current local marketplace.

If you might be interested in attending please contact myself on 0425 713 700 or peter.musso@raywhite.com.

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

CAIRNS POST: RENTALS LIFT FOR REGION

CAIRNS real estate agents hope the city’s rental vacancy rate will drop lower than 4.2 per cent in coming months pushing investors back into the property market as the region comes into its peak season.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland Cairns zone chairman Rick Szelpuk said rental vacancy figures for February were the lowest they had been in a long time after hovering between 5 to 6 per cent.

“Cairns is doing extremely well if you look at the February figures – they say houses in the Cairns central area, which includes Cairns North, Edge Hill and those suburbs, was at 3 per cent, at the northern beaches it was 2.5 per cent and the southern corridor was 3 per cent and if you put them all together there is an overall 2.8 per cent vacancy in the housing market.

“Units were slightly higher. In the Cairns central area the vacancy rate was 5.6 per cent, northern beaches 6.2 per cent and the southern corridor 2 per cent with an overall vacancy for units at 5.6 percent.

“Overall, that’s a 4.3 per cent rental vacancy rate for Cairns and that’s a pretty damn good
number considering what we’ve been through in recent times.

“As we head into our busiest period of the year, it’s a strong confidence booster as the vacancy rate can only go down and we should see investors going ahead and buying again.”

LJ Hooker Edge Hill associate director Amanda Boccalatte says houses have become more popular than units with people taking advantage of cheaper rents.

“Rent is certainly very affordable and many tenants have upgraded from a unit or townhouse to a house as they are getting more value for their money,” she said.

“One bedroom units aren’t as popular as they used too be because the prices have dropped, therefore, houses are more affordable.

“We only have 37 properties vacant and it’s the lowest it has dropped since January when we had 60 properties availableble so it’s a very positive sign.”

LJ Hooker Port Douglas director licensee Michael Samson said the seaside town had really felt the pinch in the global financial crisis.

“It’s getting better for us ass the wider area outside Port Douglas, which includess Mossman, has a vacancy rate of 10 to 13 per cent while Port Douglas is well under 10 per cent,” he said. “We’ve got people looking for houses so that’s a good sign for us. However, units aren’t as popular.”

Source: The Weekend Post 26th March 2011

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

POPULATION GROWTH FIGURES REVISED UPWARD

THE Far North's population is predicted to grow by a third, nearly 100,000 more people or 5000 a year, in the next 20 years.

The State Government has revised its anticipated population growth for the region with the number of people living in the Far North to top 373,000 by 2031, 28,000 more than the 345,000 figure predicted three years ago.

The Far North’s population stands at 278,000.

It will make the region the biggest population centre outside the southeast corner, ahead of north Queensland (from 237,461 to 346,263).

Population growth is a major underlying factor for the demand of housing and activity within property markets. Cairns now needs to address the issue of low local housing affordability and the current under supply of new dwellings.

Read article

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

THE AUSTRALIAN: CAIRNS ON THE COMEBACK

Writer for The Australian Terry Ryder reported today that Cairns looks ready to make a strong comeback in it's economy and property market.

Ryder notes major improvements to Cairns' airport and hospital, plans for the development of a $240 million dollar cultural precinct, major highway upgrades, large-scale mining related prospects and a rapidly increasing number of flights from fast growing international tourism markets.

The report comes as figures published recently indicate Cairns is one of Queensland's fastest-growing regions. Nearly 5,200 people moved to Cairns in the 2009 fiscal year, bringing its population to 164,356.

The 3.2 per cent growth put Cairns among the top four fastest-growing regions in the state, after Ipswich, Moreton Bay and the Fraser Coast.

Read full article

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

OUR BEST UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES IN 13 MONTHS

Over the past 13 months the region's unemployment rate has more than halved! This is a remarkable turnaround from 2009 when a record 13.8 percent of the Far North's workforce was unemployed.

The October unemployment figures show the number of people out of work in the Far North dropped to 6.9 percent, down 0.8 per cent on the previous month. About 3500 people found work in October, largely driven by surges in tourism numbers and a slight recovery in the construction sector.

Advance Cairns chairman Russell Beer said it was the first time he had full confidence in the official figures after watching the rate see-sawing from 12.4 per cent in January, down to 8.9 per cent in May and then back up to 10.3 per cent in July.

"7.9 per cent is great, that’s pleasing, I wasn’t expecting it below 8 per cent," Mr Beer said.

"I think we are seeing the economy picking up."

"We've (Macdonnells Law) have had a lot of business in the past three months, particularly people from out of town investing in property again." Read full article


The region's current trend unemployment rate of 9.1% is still much higher than the State's trend average of 5.4 percent, however the economic fundamentals in Cairns are continuing to gradually improve.

With the economy remaining on track for continued slow recovery over the coming months we are seeing new buyers entering the property markets and the overall industry remains confident in sustained future growth.

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

VICTORIAN INVESTORS ASSURED

Victorian-based investors in North Queensland property have been reassured that the residential real estate market in the Cairns region “will come back”.

Ray White Cairns Beaches Director Paul Stirling has held seminars in Melbourne this week with existing property owner clients to update them on the current state of the market.

Mr Stirling said Victorian investors were crucial to the long term future of residential property in North Queensland as they made up approximately 30 per cent of the investor market.

“Our meetings here in Melbourne with North Queensland property investors have been well received,” he said. “We have held three presentations with mostly existing investors. We provided them with facts and figures on where the market was from 1990, its growth patterns since then, where it is now on the ‘Property Clock’ and what the current economic indicators are pointing to in the near future.

“Many of these people are long term investors who have owned property in the Cairns region for between three and 10 years. They appreciated that we made a 4,000km journey to meet them face to face and bring them up to speed. Favourable comments were received regarding the content and factual nature of the seminar information – in particular the figures on vacancy factors in a rental market that is beginning to tighten from a balanced status."

“Our advice is that we feel the market has bottomed and there is growing confidence that the market will come back. “We’ve just given them the clear cut information to make a decision they’re comfortable with. If you don’t have to sell then don’t sell, unless you can use the yield for better purposes or investment elsewhere.”


Mr Stirling said he and the office’s business development manager Rachel Blok were breaking new ground by meeting with more than 60 investors during their Melbourne visit. “We held investor seminars last year in Perth and early next year we will be holding them in Sydney,” he said."

“It’s a good opportunity to provide an update on the residential market and information from a property management perspective to our long term investment property owners. But we also take the opportunity to meet potential new clients and we host a small function where owners can meet in a relaxed atmosphere.”

www.raywhitecairnsbeaches.com.au

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