Toowoomba property market softens further: HTW
Toowoomba’s residential market has continued to soften, showing a further decrease in median house prices across the Toowoomba urban area (postcode 4350), according to Herron Todd White’s (HTW) latest monthly market report.
The property advisory firm says that the June 2016 quarter gave a median of approximately $350,000 for Toowoomba, down from approximately $370,000 in the March 2016 quarter.
To date, the September 2016 quarter is returning a median house price of approximately $330,000, however this is based on a limited volume of settled sales transactions and should be treated with caution.
While this is proving to be a slowing market, the capacity for long term gain remains attractive to first home buyers, upgraders and renovators due to Toowoomba’s relatively affordable price points.
Price segmentation of residential properties over the past 12 months shows that 40% of all house sales recorded are between $300,000 and $400,000, the price point which encompasses the median house price and consistently proves most active.
Sales less than $300,000 and sales between $400,000 and $500,000 make up approximately 20% of all house sales respectively.
An example would be a two bedroom home at 521 Milton Road (pictured above) that was recently sold for $415,000.
Properties in the price range exceeding $700,000 appear to have the least movement, however see strong interest and sale prices.
This high end property market is restricted as a result of limited supply and limited land in higher end suburbs such as Redwood, East Toowoomba, Middle Ridge, Mount Lofty and Prince Henry Heights.
The majority of buyers in the median price range consist of local and non-local owner occupiers and investors.
"However, investor interest appears to be easing parallel to the slowing market conditions and increasing vacancy rates," the report advised.
Buyers in this price range are able to acquire a range of different homes consisting of two, three and four bedroom, brick and timber, older and recent.
These types of properties are spread across older suburbs such as Newtown, Centenary Heights, Harristown, South and North Toowoomba, ranging all the way through to brand new sub divisions in areas such as Glenvale and Cranley, situated further from the CBD.
Overall, while the relatively strong sales and price growth demonstrated in 2015 has not been met this year, the current cooling of the market may stabilise with large infrastructure projects currently under construction, including the second range crossing and QIC shopping centre development acting as catalysts for future economic growth across the region.