The March quarter has been slower throughout the state, although the overarching trends are continuing to hold steady, with small levels of growth in the southeast corner and more challenging conditions throughout much of regional Queensland. Looking at the quarterly data, Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton felt the pinch in the March quarter with a drop in median house prices of 4.1 per cent, 8.3 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively. These are th…e three biggest quarter-on-quarter drops in the state. Other regional centres, such as Gladstone, Mackay and Toowoomba experienced smaller drops of just 1.4 per cent, 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively. Looking at the more reliable annual figures, we can see that the March quarter drop has pushed Townsville below where it was 12 months ago, down by 2.3 per cent. It is hoped that the infrastructure works program, along with the recently announced new stadium and the Singapore defence force movements will boost this local economy and help it through difficult conditions.
*Published by the REIQ Market Monitor