{"id":7780,"date":"2016-04-26T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realestatetalk.com.au\/?p=7780"},"modified":"2016-04-26T01:00:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T15:00:40","slug":"investors-positive-about-nq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/channels.realty.com.au\/realtytalk\/investors-positive-about-nq\/","title":{"rendered":"Investors positive about NQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nFor the first time in this whip around the country, we acknowledge the importance of the North Queensland property market and Chris Gay<\/strong> from Cairns gives us his view on why investors remain positive about the north.
\nTranscript:<\/strong>
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 We do this every year when we have a look around Australia, and I think this is the first time ever we\u2019ve looked separately at the North Queensland market. So many things happening and Queensland such a big state that we\u2019ve decided to split it up. Joining me to talk about the northern part of Queensland is Chris Gay from Chris Gay Real Estate based in Cairns.
\nChris, thank you for your time.
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 Not a problem.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 A pretty interesting area, isn\u2019t it, North Queensland? We\u2019ll try and focus, if we can, on Mackay north, but it\u2019s interesting to look around in the Cairns market at whether or not those big developments are going to happen that have been on the drawing board for some time, Chris.
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s right. There is a little bone of contention with some of them because they have, unfortunately, dragged the chain a little bit, Kevin. There seems to be some renewed interest in the Aquis development with Tony Fung coming up here recently and meeting with our mayor.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Is it going to happen, do you think, Chris?
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 I\u2019m still sitting on the fence, I have to be honest. I\u2019m a realist with these things, and while I\u2019d love to see it go ahead, when they turn soil, then I\u2019ll be a lot happier than I am right now.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 How much does it mean to the area to have a development like that?
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 While it would be a very good thing to have, Cairns has a hell of a lot more going for it than just one development such as Aquis. We\u2019ve seen a market turnaround in the last three years with tourism in the town. There\u2019s talk of a substantial increase in the near future with the Navy base. We\u2019ve started to see the odd <\/b>crane <\/b>on the horizon with a new $50 million aquarium being built.
\nThere\u2019s talk of a number of other developments going ahead. There have been some large commercial sales. The local DFO has just been sold for about $40 million, I believe, and they\u2019re doing a $10 million upgrade on that, so there\u2019s more than one area that makes me feel very positive about Cairns.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 You\u2019ve given us a very good overview about some of the future projects. What\u2019s impacting the market there right now, both from a positive end and a negative point of view?
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 Probably from the positive point of view, it\u2019s the actual affordability of the established market. What I\u2019m seeing is a heck of a lot of the mid-range houses between, say, the $350,000 and $450,000 mark that are selling are still below a replacement cost if you were to go out, buy a parcel of land, and then build yourself a new home. To me, they represent fantastic value.
\nThe unit market, residentially, has copped a fairly torrid time over the last few years with some dramatic insurance increases, which have all, obviously, been passed back on to owners. However, we are seeing the Insurance Council start to come in and downsize some of those costs, which is a plus, which is reducing that again. Our rental return market is, I think, very, very good when it comes to an investor return for your bucks on what you\u2019re buying.
\nNegatively, as much as anything, probably the turnaround time on financing has seen spectacular growth. What we have seen, however, is a nice, steady, sustainable growth over the last few years. That, to me, is a heck of a lot safer than some of the other areas that have been reliant on mining, etc.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 How would you describe investor sentiment in that area right now?
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 I think it\u2019s fairly positive \u2013 and it should be because we\u2019re looking, at the moment, on housing at about a 2.5% vacancy factor and on residential units, we\u2019re looking at 2.9% there. That, to me, has always been around a crisis number of available properties to rent, so we\u2019re seeing that rents are certainly doing better than just holding steady; we are seeing increases in them.
\nWe haven\u2019t seen any new unit development in the last four or five years, apart from the bit of government stuff, so that supply and demand situation has basically been very tight over that time.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 You mentioned affordability as one of the big pluses, and I would have to agree with you. Where is the best buying right now? Let\u2019s look specifically in the Cairns area. What are going to get for our dollars?
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 On the south side, you have lower prices. When you look at a city like Cairns, you\u2019re talking probably 20 minutes from the CBD, either north or south to the town. Travel time is not a major consideration that comes into it. But on the south side, you\u2019re buying a nice home for around about $340,000 to $350,000.
\nComing closer into town, of course, you have some more desirable areas \u2013 Whitfield, Edge Hill, Freshwater \u2013 and you\u2019re up well over the $500,000s in a lot of those areas. But there is still the odd smaller property that offers some pretty good opportunity for someone who is prepared to take something on and expand a little bit.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 The bottom line in closing, if we could, your view about the next 12 months in the Cairns market?
\nChris:<\/b>\u00a0 I think for the next 12 months, we\u2019ll be steady as she goes. I think we\u2019ll probably see somewhere around about 3% to possibly 4% growth, which once again, as I said earlier, is quite sustainable. It\u2019s the type of market I like to see. There\u2019s no whizbang to it, but it\u2019s certainly sustainable and it\u2019s very viable.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Good on you, Chris. Thank you so much for your time. Chris Gay from Chris Gay Real Estate in Cairns. Thanks, mate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  For the first time in this whip around the country, we acknowledge the importance of the North Queensland property market and Chris Gay from Cairns gives us his view on why investors remain positive about the north. Transcript: Kevin:\u00a0 We do this every year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176692471,"featured_media":7783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,10,11,13,22,27],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-7780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buying-a-property-topic","category-kevin-turner-sponsored-channels","category-kevin-update","category-latest-story","category-research-topic","category-trends-topic","tag-podcasts"],"yoast_head":"\nInvestors positive about NQ - Realty Talk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/channels.realty.com.au\/realtytalk\/investors-positive-about-nq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investors positive about NQ - Realty Talk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  For the first time in this whip around the country, we acknowledge the importance of the North Queensland property market and Chris Gay from Cairns gives us his view on why investors remain positive about the north. 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