Chapter 1: What makes Hervey Bay the happiest place in Australia?
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Well, you could say it's finished, but it's just begun if you're on the hunt for real estate around the country, and it certainly hasn't finished for real estate people really cranking it up today to get out there to sell some properties, maybe to list some properties. It is a Saturday morning, the 1st of October for 2022, and if you like fishing...
I have got the perfect spot coming up for you in just a moment with Scott from Mitchells Realty. Don't forget tomorrow morning we have the Sunday Rewind. We look back over the last seven days with the interviews, some of the trends and some of the predictions. And then next week we're going to be having a look at some of the luxury markets. On Monday, Monica Liu is going to be here.
talking about the Sydney market, the luxury market, what is happening, is there plenty of stock, what is happening with the price points. And then on Tuesday we go to Brisbane and we talk to Hamish there about Tenerife, which is the new $3 million suburb in Brisbane. If you're celebrating your birthday today for the 1st of October, have a fantastic Saturday.
Just the one celebrity birthday, it is Jimmy Carter. He is celebrating his 98th birthday, 39th President of the United States. And I actually looked to see if his wife Rosalind is still alive there. They got married in 1946, and she is. She's still going strong, and they have been together for 76 years of marriage. Well done.
It's your weekend real estate breakfast, a serial-sized podcast about what's happening in your local backyard every Saturday morning on The Real Estate Podcast.
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Chapter 2: Why are people moving to Hervey Bay?
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In Brisbane, one or two pieces of rain with some showers and 24 as your forecast top. And in Perth today, it is the place to be. Warm sunshine and 28 degrees. It's your real estate podcast for breakfast. We talk with leading property commentators with analysis, predictions, forecasts and what's trending every morning from 6.30.
Well, if you're looking for a place to get a suntan this coming summer, I've probably got the perfect location and it's in Queensland. They get plenty of sunshine. Isn't that right, Scott, from Mitchell's Realty there in Harvey Bay? Certainly is. Mojave Bay does statistically have one of the most temperate subtropical climates in Australia. So it is pretty good.
I remember several years ago that 60 Minutes were doing an episode on... I think it was something along the lines of where are Australia's most happiest people and where people are enjoying quality of life. And I've got a sneaking suspicion that it was Harvey Bay, the happiest people. It did. 100%.
Chapter 3: What is the current median house price in Hervey Bay?
Actually, there's been two separate surveys done, and we are. We've been voted the happiest place in Australia. People do come to Harvey Bay for a change of life. That's a common theme for why people move here, other than we've got one of the best climates in the country. But they come here for a change of life, and the lifestyle that comes with living in such an idyllic, beautiful location.
Yeah, and I'm just thinking now, somebody in Melbourne this morning has woken up and thinking, gee, we've had a really miserable sort of a winter. Maybe we need to look for that sea change. You'd be dealing with people, these interstaters that have moved into Harvey Bay from the likes of Melbourne? Yeah, certainly.
And that was really one of the driving forces for myself and my wife, Katrina, moving here 17 years ago. We were running a specialist fishing tackle business in Cooma, Cooma in the Snowy Mountains. And whilst the business was great and I'm a mad fisherman, anyone that knows me knows I'm a passionate angler. But it was the climate down there is what wore us down.
It's just getting from sort of April onwards, getting up every morning and splitting wood and lighting a fire and it was minus something every day. It wears you down. So we don't have any of those issues up here in Harvey Bay, I can tell you. Yeah, sounds idyllic. All right. Now, just remind us, Scott, let's have a look at the median house price.
Let's just recap this for Harvey Bay because we'll talk about the growth factor in just a moment.
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Chapter 4: How has the property market changed in Hervey Bay recently?
But can you just recap median house price and apartment prices at the moment? Yeah, look, certainly we've seen now unquestionably the largest property boom in Harvey Bay's history over the last nine months. It was only really a year ago that the average medium sale price for a home across Harvey Bay was around that $320 to $350 mark.
It's now sitting between 550 and 600 is the average medium, depending on the suburb, because we've got a very diverse property selection across Harvey Bay. We've got everything from your high-density, small, low-maintenance allotments that are like 450-square-metre blocks with neat homes and low-maintenance yards through to... acreages, like a full acre, five to 10 minutes outside of our CBD.
So you can almost have acreage rural lifestyle allotments and half acre blocks within 10 minutes of the CBD all the way through to these smaller allotments, low maintenance home bases, essentially. We've got a very diverse range of property options. And then on top of that, we've got units and townhouses.
So units and townhouses, only a year or so ago, you could have been looking at an average median between 250 and three, and that's now more likely to be, I haven't checked it recently, to be honest, on units and townhouses, but I'd suggest it must be around the four to 450 range now.
And we have seen the values come up across those products, but they definitely always lag behind houses as far as popularity and price growth goes. Yeah, last time that we were talking, you were saying that from the years of 2002 through to 2007-08, there was a lot of growth for Harvey Bay, but then the dreaded GFC came along, wiped out most of that growth, and you were back to square one.
But things, as you say, the median price now has lifted. Now, I was talking to Alex in Noosa earlier, who was very quick to point out that even though prices have shifted significantly, and we're talking about Noosa, prices in Noosa are still cheaper compared to most capital cities. But then you look at somewhere further north from Noosa, Harvey Bay, that will represent even better buying.
Yes, certainly. Look, we've still got to be one of the most affordable coastal communities on the east coast of Queensland. You can buy a brand new home still within 10 minutes of our Esplanadan beach for 600 grand, brand new. We've got some fantastic new estates going in where those new builds are now starting around at 600,000.
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Chapter 5: What lifestyle benefits does Hervey Bay offer to new residents?
and they go through at about $750,000. The issue has been in those land estates, though, is that essentially just about all the land in those new estates has been pre-sold now in advance, even in advance of having titles.
And I'm told that most of those estates going forward are most likely going to wind up in a ballot situation where you'll just have to put your name in a hat if you want to secure a vacant block of land because we've got such high demand still at the moment. And you were saying that trying to get a tradie is kind of next to impossible.
So I guess that there's plenty of opportunities, people in the trades, if they were thinking about moving to an area like Harvey Bay, the work is there. Yeah, certainly. And actually, we've just had a couple of young fellas, qualified builders, licensed builders in their early 30s, moved here for the lifestyle with their families.
And because we have such fantastic facilities as far as schooling goes, daycare, medical, hospitals. And obviously the lifestyle that comes here. So these young fellas have moved up here and because of that shortfall on trades, they approached us and said, you know, if you've got any properties need renovating for sale or you've got anyone that needs a hand with renovating, let us know.
And we've just instantly kept them run off their feet as soon as they put their feet on the ground. So anyone that is qualified in the trades, I would suggest you should have no issue finding work across Harvey Bay and we should have years of work ahead of us. And you were saying just lastly there, Scott, that you ran this fishing business.
I guess fishing is pretty good for where you're located there at Harvey Bay. Yeah, certainly. That was really one of our main criterias for us. Harvey Bay and the Great Sandy Straits is unique in regard. We've got one of the most diverse fisheries in the country because it's a bit of a meeting point of all your subtropical water and temperate climate species and our tropical species. So we get a
Fantastic array of different fish all the way from your bread and butter species like brim, whiting and flathead, all the way through to our reef fish like coral trout and then pelagics all the way through to tuna and marlin.
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Chapter 6: What opportunities exist for tradespeople in Hervey Bay?
So it has got an amazingly diverse fishery and we're sheltered by Gari, which is Fraser Island. Having the largest sand island on our doorstep protects us from those prevailing southeast sea breezes and gives us those protected, sheltered waters through the sandy straits and up through Platypus Bay. It really is a boaties paradise.
Yeah, well, I'm sure that there are plenty of boaties this morning thinking that sounds like the place to go. All right, we'll leave it there. I'll let you get on with it. And thanks again for coming on to The Real Estate Breakfast. We appreciate catching up with you guys and look forward to the next one. We connect you to the best real estate information across Australia.
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