Gladstone approaching bottom of market for houses: HTW property clock
The Queensland city of Gladstone is at 'approaching the bottom of the market' position for houses for the third month in a row, according to valuation firm Herron Todd White's property clock for May 2016, a simple broad brush means to suggest where property markets are and what direction they're headed.
Gladstone first slipped into this position in March from being a declining market in February, according to the HTW clock.
The latest report from HTW also deals with heritage-listed property. There are no residential premises in Gladstone that are heritage listed. In saying this, suburbs closer to the city including Gladstone Central, West Gladstone and South Gladstone contain many older traditional Queenslander style homes.
Many of these homes have been renovated to high standards and have some form of harbour or district view due to the hilly nature of central Gladstone. These types of homes are also generally on larger size allotments (typically around 1,000 square metres) which also adds to their appeal. Homes of this calibre are tightly held however can attract a fair level of interest when they become available, even in current market conditions.
Previously, HTW had said that Gladstone was not a large enough city to see different suburbs being subjected to gentrification. Most new development occurs in newer suburbs on the city fringe. In years gone by, parts of central suburbs such as South Gladstone and West Gladstone were popular with developers building townhouses on larger allotments closer to the city. Most of this redevelopment has ceased since the market peaked.
On the commercial side, key areas in Gladstone that attract premium retail rentals are those located in prime positions along major transport routes and within modern centres anchored by a major supermarket. Despite weakened market conditions, these centres appear to be maintaining good occupancy levels with few vacancies. Retail tenancies that have been harder hit by local economic conditions are those within secondary locations, within an older style building, have poor access, have poor on site parking or have a combination of these. Within the Gladstone CBD, there are patches of these secondary tenancies generally within Goodoon Street, Tank Street and Toolooa Street. Demand for these tenancies has weakened significantly throughout the recent downturn, with increased vacancies and reduced rental levels.
For residential property, others in the approaching the bottom of market cycle for houses were Darwin, Alice Springs, Bundaberg, Emerald, Mackay and Rockhampton, the HTW clock shows. Bundaberg in Queensland was the new entrant here, improving from its bottom of market status.
The bottom of the market cycle was completed by Mt Gambier and Townsville.
The peak of market remained more or less the same for houses, with NSW Central Coast, Dubbo, Horsham and Newcastle maintaining their positions, while Coffs Harbour shifted to the starting to decline phase.