Townsville a people magnet
December 15th, 2008
IT'S official – Townsville is a people magnet with about 100 new residents calling the tropical city home every week.
Latest figures from the Midwood Queensland Investment Report show the city has expanded to accommodate more than 170,000 people – up 10,000 on 2006 population statistics.
And there's more to come according to the report, which projects the local population will be 185,000 by 2012.
Townsville mayor Les Tyrell welcomed the milestone, but warned the city would struggle to provide necessary infrastructure unless State and Federal governments opened their coffers.
But Cr Tyrell said the Midwood figures were nevertheless encouraging because the city continued to experience a shortage of skilled workers.
"It's always a struggle to keep up with infrastructure in high growth areas," Cr Tyrell said.
"We are going to have to rely more on State and Federal governments for funding.
"I think the area is coping but there's no doubt the population growth provides us with challenges.
"We still have a shortage of skilled workers so we need to continue to ensure we are the destination of choice for people who can bring their skills to the city."
Cr Tyrell said council would look to the State Government to fund the CBD upgrade, road infrastructure in the Northern Beaches area and roadworks for State controlled roads around the city.
The Midwood report also showed half yearly dwelling approvals were less than half what they were at the same time last year, resulting in a temporary property squeeze.
Ferry property residential sales manager Jason Smith said while only 748 building approvals were predicted for the second half of 2007 compared to 1505 during the same period last year, the situation could soon change.
"We are in a situation where there is a shortage of supply in the market," Mr Smith said.
"This is the case both in the sale market and the rental markets where vacancy rates have been very low for a long time.
"Soon there will be a situation where there is much more demand which will put pressure on supply and eventually pressure on prices."
Mr Smith said the interest rate cuts combined with the
boost to the first home buyer's grant had already started to stimulate the market.
"We've seen activity in the lower and middle ends of the market with people moving in and making that purchase," he said.
"As the interest rates come down mortgage payments also come down so people can afford a more expensive property.
"The market is price sensitive at the moment.
"If houses are overpriced no matter what level of the market they're in they could stay there for a while."
HIA North Queensland executive director John Futer said he expected the housing industry to pick up by February.
"We've been at about an average 3 per cent population growth over the past three years so with these kind of figures and the fact we haven't been building as many homes the market can't stay down for long," Mr Futer said.
"You can't just have people moving here with no place to live.
"We are having a bit of a lull at the moment but there's a worldwide economic downturn.
"In the new year people will start checking out all the display homes around the city and we are expecting positive figures in February."
More Townsville Investor News
