Booming but still a bargain: Big little Queensland city has $350,000 house prices
Located between Brisbane and Townsville sits the big-little city of Rockhampton. Known as the “beef capital of Australia”, it’s also a property market in demand.
Over 2024, house prices in Rockhampton City grew by a massive 46.8 per cent – but prices are still just $350,000, according to the latest Domain House Price Report.
This once-affordable location has seen a massive change in prices in the past few years as high rental yields have made the area an investor’s dream, says local real estate agent Kas Woch of Kas Woch Real Estate.
“What they call Rockhampton City is the older section of Rockhampton, and that’s where the cheaper houses were. Those cheaper houses aren’t cheaper anymore,” he says.
“Buyer demand is as strong as ever,” Woch says. “Our rental demand is strong.
“Our vacancy rate is under 1 per cent, and in some cases, we’ve seen rentals increase by 60 or 70 per cent in the last two years.”
“Rockhampton went through a period of about 13 years, between 2007 and up until about two years ago, where our property market was levelled. [About] 18 months to two years ago, we had a big influx of southern investors. Our property prices have increased somewhere in the order of 25 per cent every year for the last two years.”
The majority of the southern investors are either from Sydney or Melbourne, but real estate agent Centelle Winstanley of McGrath Rockhampton says Brisbane-based investors have also been taking advantage of the high rental yields.
“We are a mining town, so the rental prices here have always been quite high in comparison to other places,” she says.
Jason Rayner of Mr Real Estate Rockhampton agrees, saying, “The mines have been very productive, and they’re employing many people that come to live around the Rockhampton area. We’ve had a surge in newcomers coming to town because [the city] has just got a wonderful lifestyle.
“There were over 300 days of sunshine in the Rockhampton district last year,” he says.
Investors have been buying properties under $500,000, quickly pushing up house prices, says Woch.
“Up until two years ago, we were selling houses at $200,000. Now, there’s probably nothing on the market under about $350,000.”
A property under $350,000 will require extensive renovations, says Winstanley, but with a budget of $400,000 to $550,000, it’s possible to find an entry-level home that needs little to no work.
“The majority of the properties here have three beds and one bath. You’re kind of working with maybe 500 to 700 square metres [of land],” says Winstanley.
Rockhampton City agents believe prices will continue to skyrocket well into 2025 as it is more affordable for investors than the capital cities.
“We’re just breaking ground in price every month. The valuers struggle to keep up with the new sales,” says Rayner.
“We’re seeing properties tip for half a million [dollars] regularly now in Rockingham.”
With interest rate cuts on the horizon, Rayner expects the price to jump even further.
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