Gladstone property values officially up 20% in a year, while investors await rate revisions

Median property values in the mining-focused town of Gladstone increased 19% from 2010 to 2011 according to the Queensland Valuer-General Neil Bray’s annual report.

The locality of Bororen performed best in the area, increasing 69.7% from $33,000 to $56,000, according to Bray.

Gladstone mayor Gail Sellers told Property Observer the value rise was driven by LNG and mining investment in the area with vacancy rates less than 1%.

Of the 44 localities within the municipality 30 increased in value, 13 had no change and one property decreased in value.

Bray says residential values have generally risen by 10-50% in Gladstone and surrounding towns.

Despite the value increases Sellers anticipates that council rates will not rise dramatically.

“I don’t expect they will go up quite a lot. I certainly do not. But we have to think about our requirements for revenue,” she says.

“Most councils are mindful of the amount that they increase but they have to look at the needs for the region and they have to take into account what is needed to run the organisation.”

She says the difference in value changes through the region would make it hard to set rates.

"The rise has not been uniform across the region. If the rise had been uniform, we could have dropped the rate in the dollar. So that would help everyone. But because it’s been different in all the towns, it’s going to be extremely difficult.”

A lot of the growth in land value was driven by LNG developments.

“Some localities such as Gladstone and surrounding towns reflected large increases in median values due to large industrial and liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments in those localities,” Bray says.

“The Gladstone region is experiencing significant growth driven by the establishment of LNG industries on Curtis Island and port expansion at Fishermans Landing and Wiggins Island.

“This growth is limited to the northern section of the local government area with softer market conditions existing in southern areas.”

Bray found changes in Agnes Water and 1770 have been variable with some increases and some decreases.

Sellers says tourism in 1770 has suffered recently.

“They had a bad year in 1770 with the floods. They happened over Christmas at the major time for tourists. The floods meant no one could get in so they missed their usual tourist rush.”

Despite this, she says hotel vacancies during the week in the Gladstone region have been exceptionally tight.

“During the week we have no vacancies, you have to book weeks and weeks in advance.”

“Some of the hotels have been bought by industry and they use them as a workers camp. So that’s taken two or three motels off the market.”

Bray found commercial lands commercial lands have increased in value while industrial lands had less change.