Townsville Property Market Assessment
The Townsville Property Market Update for September 2019 by Herron Todd White (HTW) paints a cautiously hopeful picture of economic growth and property price activity.
Townsville projects, natural disasters and population
Based on the future pipeline of projects, reactionary impacts from natural disasters on positive employment from the 2019 flood event, and below average population growth, Townsville’s property outlook is unlikely to be hitting balls out of the new North Queensland Stadium any day soon.
Herron Todd White’s Townsville team have identified that “population growth is a major driver of the property market with jobs and job security underpinning this growth.”
In its latest report, the award winning property valuation company said; “Over the period 2015 to 2018, we saw population growth occurring at a rate significantly below the long-term average of 1.9%. Over the same period, we saw unemployment rates in the Townsville region trending well above the state unemployment rate.”
In other words, population decline and unemployment have occurred in direct correlation, both factors dependent on each other.
“During 2019, we have seen a strong pick-up in the number of jobs being advertised on employment websites for the Townsville region with the unemployment rate reducing. This increasing trend in the number of jobs being advertised bodes well for net employment creation during the coming months,” HTW said.
North Queensland strategic plan calling for 50,000 new houses
In the wake of the Townsville floods where a significant national emergency response was required as 6000 residents were damaged, the report identified the “residential market is being driven by local dynamics, however a tight rental market coupled with affordable median house prices means we are seeing anecdotally some increased interest from investors.”
“The Townsville region has a large pipeline of major projects proposed or under construction including Stage 2 of the Haughton Water Pipeline Duplication, Port of Townsville channel widening project and the proposed lithium-ion battery facility.”
“These current and proposed projects will consolidate economic recovery, with real job creation that will offer long term employment and job security needed to retain and encourage population growth more in line with our long-term average growth rate and in turn drive the property market.”
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