I think there’s a strong argument that the strongest property market in Australia right now is not Sydney, nor Melbourne, but the Queensland regional city of Toowoomba.
This is the market which has not only delivered outstanding growth in the past year but has the credentials to keep on doing it. It has one of the nation’s most vibrant local economies, it has the lowest unemployment in the land, it’s affordable, it has above-average rental yields and there is a massive infrastructure spend under way.
That’s an investment cake with lots of tasty ingredients. And the icing on the cake is the resources activity in the nearby Surat Basin.
A question I always ask when a location is being boosted by exceptional circumstances is this: if all that activity suddenly stopped, would the location still be a good investment?
In the case of Toowoomba, this means: would the cake still be tasty without the icing? If all the coal seam gas and related activity stopped tomorrow, would Toowoomba still be a good buy?
The answer, unequivocally, is yes.
Toowoomba has long been an important regional centre. It’s Queensland’s largest inland city and it has that most important of ingredients, economic diversity – including agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, health & community services, construction and government administration.
I’ve been shouting about Toowoomba for several years now and recently the city has been widely recognised for its many qualities.
A 2012 report by the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry rated the Toowoomba region as the backbone of the state economy. The chamber’s Queensland Pulse Report ranked the south-west region, centred on Toowoomba, as the leader in all key criteria except one. The region led the state on business confidence, general business conditions, sales and revenue, employment levels and capital spending.
A 2013 report by Suncorp Bank rated Toowoomba as the employment capital of Australia. It had the lowest unemployment rate at 1.9%, ahead of Darwin 2.1% and Canberra 2.9%. This was reinforced in a September 2013 report which found Toowoomba’s unemployment rate was 1.5 percentage points below the national average. Toowoomba was also rated the third most “family friendly” of Australia’s 30 largest cities.
Affordability and strong rental returns are a big part of the Toowoomba appeal for invesetors. The standard house purchase is something in the high $200,000s or low $300,000s, with apartments in the mid to high $200,000s. It’s fairly easy to find 6% gross yields on houses and 6.5% on units. Vacancies are consistently low.
According to Australian Property Monitors, there has been exceptional capital growth in the past 12 months. Most suburbs have had double-digit growth in their median prices, with several recording 15% to 18%.
Prospects for ongoing performance are strong. The infrastructure spend is considerable and there is the bonus of resources activity via the coal seam gas which is feeding the new processing plants at Gladstone.
The Wellcamp Airport is well advanced in construction, there is massive investment in roads (including the $1.6 billion second range crossing, which has state and federal funding), there are plans for two major new rail links to serve the resources sector, a $300 million convention centre is in the offing and there are upgrades to medical facilities including Toowoomba Hospital.
Property developers are active, with projects that include a $350 million re-development of inner-city retail facilities, major industrial estates and an array of housing and apartment projects.
In terms of what many investors would see as the ideal investment venue – affordable prices, strong rental returns and great future prospects, underpinned by a vibrant local economy – it doesn’t get much better than Toowoomba.
Life won't be too good for old die hard rednecks like you. You need to make a bit of effort and drag yourself outta the 50's. Australia has a great future and it is in Asia that our future lies. Britain does not have any interest in retaining you as a colonial subject.
Definition of a doom and gloomer from 1993 The last camp is made up of the doom-and-gloomers. Their slogan is "it's the end of the world as we know it". Right now they are convinced that debt is the evil responsible for all our economic woes and must be eliminated at all cost. Many doom-and-gloomers believe that unprecedented debt levels mean that we are on the precipice of a worse crisis than the Great Depression. The doom-and-gloomers hang on the latest series of negative economic data.
Ignore posts by The Whole Truth · View Post · End Ignoring The forum fuckwit goes RRRAAARRRGGHHhhh - But not a fuck was given..................by anyone.
Life won't be too good for old die hard rednecks like you. You need to make a bit of effort and drag yourself outta the 50's. Australia has a great future and it is in Asia that our future lies. Britain does not have any interest in retaining you as a colonial subject.
Go and learn the lessons of your own broken country before you lay your idiot trip on this country. This multicultural idiocy never ends with you.
Watching the news tonight it would appear we have thrown our lot in with the USA and our political "elite" are determined to follow them all the way to hell.
BTW as is usual with multicultural extremists like yourself it is open season on white people and racial slurs against whites are smiled upon but watch the multikulti shit hit the fan if anyone says boo about a Marxist approved minority. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck
Quote:
The term Redneck is chiefly used for a poor rural white person of the Southern United States. It can be a derogatory slang term similar in meaning to cracker, hillbilly, and white trash
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