Remote mining towns dominate RP Data’s list of Queensland top-performing housing markets
Remote north Queensland mining towns dominate a list of the state’s top-performing suburbs in 2011, according to RP Data’s list of top 100 house price growth suburbs.
Reflecting the underperformance of the Queensland housing market in 2011, there are only 12 sunshine state locations on the list, with nine of these having strong ties to mining and natural resources activity.
All nine mining towns rank inside the top 50 with four inside the top 10 suburbs led by top placed Moranbah in the Isaac region coal belt as well as nearby Clermont, which ranked 22nd.
Moranbah is followed by a cluster of towns around Gladstone, the epicentre of $75 billion worth of liquefied natural gas, rail and port projects. These include New Auckland (third), Clinton (sixth) and West Gladstone (eighth).
Ray White Gladstone principal Andrew Allen says investors make up 60% of buyers in the region, with vacancies in 2011 below 1% despite a record number of dwellings approved by the council.
About 10,000 new workers are expected in Gladstone over the next 12 months, with mining companies building 4,000 accommodation units and the Queensland government developing about 1,000 blocks.
“Demand outweighs supply two to one,” Allen tells The Australian.
The mining outlier is Roma, 515 kilometres west of Brisbane in the Darling Downs, a town swept up in the coal seam gas (CSG) boom and the home of Origin Energy's Spring Gully Coal Seam Gas Development and the outer end point of the 434-kilometres Roma-to-Brisbane gas pipeline.
The three remaining locations are the Brisbane suburbs of Red Hill (17th), Indooroopilly (70th) and Coorparoo (77th).
Red Hill, just three kilometres from the Brisbane CBD, recorded impressive house price growth of 12% to a median house price of $705,000 and is the only one of the tree Brisbane suburbs to rank higher than some of the remote mining locations.
Queensland locations in the RP Data Top 100
Rank | Location | Median value in 2010 | Median value in 2011 | % change |
1st | Moranbah | $474,000 | $612,000 | 29% |
3rd | New Auckland | $379,000 | $459,000 | 21.2% |
6th | Clinton | $385,000 | $452,000 | 17.4% |
8th | West Gladstone | $353,000 | $412,000 | 16.7% |
11th | Roma | $274,000 | $317,000 | 15.7% |
12th | Blackwater | $310,000 | $357,000 | 14.9% |
18th | Red Hill | $629,000 | $705,000 | 12% |
21st | Boyne Island | $421,000 | $470,000 | 11.8% |
22nd | Clermont | $317,000 | $353,000 | 11.3% |
35th | Emerald | $354,000 | $385,000 | 8.6% |
70th | $653,000 | $692,000 | 6% | |
76th | $602,000 | $634,000 | 5.4% |
Source: RP Data
Photo courtsey of Flickr.
