Cairns June 2018

The month in review: Cairns

By Herron Todd White
June 2018

2018 thus far has proved to be a stodgy year for the Cairns property market. Residential property demand has remained constant, prices have remained flat and the market has remained stuck in a steady state position.

The latest trended median price readings in Cairns for sales during April 2018 stood at $405,000 for houses and $209,000 for units. Technically, these represent price changes during the past twelve months of -2.4% for houses and -5.5% for units.

Our own in-market assessment is that individual property value movements over the past 12 months have been varied by no more than plus or minus 5%. The upshot is that even though solid fundamentals are in place with low rental vacancy rates, no obvious oversupply in any market sector and continued economic improvement, the Cairns property market is still being hampered by a lack of confidence and a constrained fiscal environment.

We have been on record expecting demand for most residential property to revitalise during 2018 as a result of ongoing economic improvement. Sales volumes have been expected to come back to a slow but steady increase and flow through to modestly rising prices. So far it hasn’t happened. What’s more, if it doesn’t happen in 2018, it never will.