Douglas homes keep their high median values
PROPERTY VALUES
Sales volumes might be down on the previous year, but the median value of a Douglas home remains high – still topping the list in regional Queensland and staying above many other areas of Australia.
Overall the trend in regional housing values picked up, with the combined regionals index rising half a percent in May, following a 0.2% and 0.1% rise in March and April, according to major property research firm CoreLogic.
In Port Douglas-Daintree – a statistic ‘level 3’ (SA3) area – the median home value was $553,174 in May, the next highest Queensland region being Toowoomba at $536,401.
What remained remarkable about Port Douglas-Daintree was the median value again exceeded a lot of areas in other, more populated regions of the country where historically, median values were higher than in far north Queensland.
Interestingly, Port Douglas-Daintree’s 12-month median value was not only the highest in all of regional Queensland, but also outweighed median home values in all of regional NSW (the highest there was $501,917 in Albury). The median home value was also above those in eight of the 10 areas surveyed in regional Victoria (Warrnambool $605,954 and $557,472 in Wodonga-Alpine).
CoreLogic’s research director, Tim Lawless, said the capital cities and greater city areas have still outpaced the median property growth in regional areas, and it mainly comes down to supply and demand.
“Although advertised housing supply remains tight across regional Australia, demand from net overseas migration is less substantial,” Mr Lawless said.
“ABS data points to around 15 per cent of Australia’s net overseas migration being centred in the regions each year. Additionally, a slowdown in internal migration rates across the regions has helped to ease the demand side pressures on housing.”