Resources boom over, fringes around Queensland's Mackay seeing price falls: HTW

The Queensland city of Mackay is approaching the bottom of the market for houses while remaining in decline for units, according to valuation firm Herron Todd White's recent property clock.

Mackay was at the same stages in the April clock as well, which looked at its fringe suburbs.

There are quite a number of fringe suburbs and rural townships scattered in most directions from Mackay. These fringe areas all received good solid market gains through the period 2010 to 2013 on the back of a very strong Mackay residential market. The main attraction was affordability, with a lot more bang for your buck in these areas. Towns such as Sarina and its surrounding beach towns to the south and Marian and Mirani in the Pioneer Valley were good performers as the market moved out of Mackay. 

However, since 2014, the Mackay market has fallen significantly on the back of a weakened resource sector and the heavy reliance the Mackay residential market has on the mining industry. The market in Mackay generally has fallen between 20% and 30% with weakening demand for both sale and rental properties and rising vacancy rates. While this downturn has seen values fall, it has presented some great buying opportunities in terms of value levels not seen in Mackay for more than 10 years. 

This fall in property values in Mackay has had a huge influence on sale numbers and values in the fringe areas. The big wave that rode out of Mackay in the boom times has definitely receded. The relative affordability now experienced in Mackay has meant these fringe areas had to reposition price points to compete. Towns such as Marian and Sarina have seen significant price falls sometimes greater in percentage terms than seen in Mackay City. 

Property Observer looked up a few recent property sales in some of the fringe suburbs of Mackay such as Sarina and Marian, from www.realestate.com.au:

The median price of houses in Sarina is $299,600, according to CoreLogic RP Data. There was no recent data for units.

The four-bedroom house at 95 West Street Sarina Qld 4737 last traded at $292,000.

The median house price in Marian was $420,000, according to CoreLogic RP Data. There was no recent data for units.

A four-bedroom house at 25 West Street Marian Qld 4753 traded for $386,000.