Aussie Real Estate Podcast
Townsville Property Affordability vs Sydney Eastern Suburbs Density: What Buyers Should Know
17 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Chapter 2: What makes Townsville a more affordable option for home buyers?
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Absolutely. And it's also bringing a lot of people to Townsville because at the moment, in a way, the best way to explain it, it's still affordable because we can foresee the change coming. And if it's going to follow like Brisbane and the rest of Australia, it's going to get tough. So with the money they're pouring into Townsville, people are trying to get embedded now and
Yeah, that is true. And I just want to circle back to Garbert with this report from PropTrack. Now, that range I mentioned from $341,000 in Garbert to $861,000 in Manly, that lower entry point, boy, all the eyes are on Garbert for that very reason.
Correct, because in a way that just shows you where we're going, but it shows you where we're at at the moment.
Chapter 3: How are median house prices changing in Townsville?
And we are finding a lot more people, and that price will rise because a lot more people can afford units over the house prices these days.
Can you run through the median house price both on the units there in Townsville as well as the houses?
The units were averaging between the $300,000 to $400,000 on units, whereas houses have gone that bit more expensive. They've gone about $550,000 to around that $700,000. It is quite a wide range. However, because we have got a lot of buyers around and that competition, it's very hard to pinpoint that medium one because it's just increasing.
And I want to get on to the subject of why selling off market could cost you thousands of dollars. Now, we've all seen people, especially on social media, different agencies, different companies saying, hey, look, I've got this idea. off-market property and, you know, it's a good one, blah, blah, blah.
But selling your property off-market means basically you are skipping public listings and advertising. And I've said it in the past, it is in the name. Off-market is not mass market.
That is correct. And I have a saying off market is under market. And the reason I say that the buyers set the market. And if you're not willing to get your property out there, you're going to be selling under that market value. And the reason being you send a property live, you're hitting hundreds of thousands of people.
Whereas if you're working one-on-one with an agent to do off-market, you're anywhere between one buyer and maybe six buyers.
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Chapter 4: Why should sellers consider the risks of off-market property sales?
So you're limiting that buyer competition, the buyer interest. And we've got a lot of southerners wanting to move up here. So we're finding if you're reaching out to a couple of investors or a couple of locals, you've just cut your buyer pool by about 96%.
Now, how frustrating is that? Because you talk about the lower sale price, a smaller audience means fewer higher offers. That is the key. And on the open market, multiple interested buyers are more likely to push the price higher. Hence, you're not going to be missing out on the best possible price.
Correct. And we're also finding as agents, someone in that same suburb, when we're going to do an appraisal on their property and we see one that sold two doors down for such a low price, the first thing we do is go, yep, off market because that's not its true value. So you can't even include that as a comparable because it's not fair to the seller.
So what do you say to vendors that hear this term off market when somebody says, oh, I want to list your property off market?
Chapter 5: What impact does buyer competition have on property pricing?
What's the information piece that you would advise because vendors are listening right now to the podcast? What would you advise these people to do when they hear those words? I want to take your property to off market.
I just say to them, would you like me to bring you one offer that you may be OK with? Or would you like me to bring you multiple offers where you get to choose where your house is value wise?
Hey, it is a Tuesday afternoon and we know what that means. Means that the RBA has been very, very busy deciding what they're going to do with regard to the cash rate. Hopefully it is good news. Let's go to Anthony Landau. our mortgage guru in Sydney.
What have they decided to do? Look, as expected, they have dropped the cash rate by 25 basis points, which is good news. And it was probably expected news on the back of last week's inflationary data, where we saw inflation rising just 0.6%. It's the lowest rate in three and a half years.
Chapter 6: How are zoning changes affecting property values in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs?
It's at 2.7%, well within the target range. And I just want to talk about these investors that might not be able to get into your area.
These price increases in the double bays, in the Coochies, etc., they are going to affect the outer suburbs. And I just wonder whether people should be looking at some of these outer suburbs for growth.
Well, I think it's a logical move, right, because ultimately not everyone can live within the eastern suburbs. And I think with the change in zoning, we are going to see more density in the east. You know, it makes logical sense that, you know, buyers that are ultimately looking to buy kind of in Bellevue Hill, Rose Bay, Coogee, Tamarama. get pushed out.
And so therefore, long-term, that has an impact on some of the suburbs that are kind of on the fringes or fringe rather of the eastern suburbs. They will, by virtue, have price increases, which I suppose provide an enticing opportunity for an investor to go, I'll buy this today at X price with the knowledge that it'll be Y price down the line.
I think, look, generally speaking, property, particularly in the eastern suburbs, I only goes in one direction over time, which is up. But I would say that that will end up being the case more broadly as time progresses.
Yeah. So as I mentioned, a lot is going on. And if you look at Rose Bay with their changing zoning laws, how is that in 2025 going to be affecting the price?
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Chapter 7: What are the long-term implications of increased density in urban areas?
It's an interesting one because the change in the LMR or the zoning has actually impacted multiple suburbs, not just Rose Bay. But what we are seeing as an office, and we've kind of spearheaded this change, what we're seeing is that it seems to be impacting Rose Bay more than the other suburbs. For example, our office has sold, I think, four or five sites.
I've sold one personally for, it was circa $30 million where the houses were probably worth, I would say, probably $6 or $7 million each. There was another one which a colleague of mine sold along Dover Road where, for example, one of the properties struggled to sell for $8. They ended up getting $16 because essentially, with the change in zoning, what's feasible or
potentially feasible in these areas is significantly more and so that therefore lifts the value of some of these properties significantly almost double but the counter side to that is that there are a lot of people wanting to actually sell out of the area because they don't want to be in a suburb where there's lots of density which is going to be the long-term impact of this so you know i suppose there are winners and losers on both sides
And I want to circle back to something we were talking about yesterday, and that was off-market sales. There could be an argument that because you're in an exclusive area that, you know, these high-priced tags, some people, they absolutely cherish their privacy. Is this a case of maybe saying, well, yes, an off-market suits us, although I still stick with it.
It's not mass marketing and you're probably not going to get the best price.
I think that if you look at off-market versus on-market, look, at the very, very high end, off-market does seem to be kind of a growing trend where these properties that are trading at 30, 40, 50 million and beyond are selling very discreetly and quietly.
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Chapter 8: How do median profits from property sales differ between houses and units?
However, if we're talking more broadly, I tend to think that as an owner and the agent, how can you have conviction that you are achieving the maximum price when you've only had a couple of people through and then receive an offer? You don't have enough information to substantiate that. One thing I will say though is that I think off-market has a place in a campaign and a process.
That's usually leading into the formalized approach or as you've said, mass marketing. So you're bringing through some key people who have the right capacity and right criteria before starting the campaign because then that provides you with a lot of momentum leading into that process.
But I think just selling off market in isolation doesn't really yield the urgency and doesn't really provide enough information to substantiate that you're achieving the maximum.
Now, this profit and loss report, as I mentioned in the setup, I don't think most people would pick that price, that house median price across the country in the first half of this year at $365,000. That is an awful lot. Yes, of course, you know, you've got the super, super expensive properties, especially there in Sydney, that is pushing along that median price.
But then you look at Sydney itself and that median, 700 grand, the equity gains for people, life-changing.
It's extreme. This really creates that wealth effect. It really showcases that owning property, transacting property, really does help to build financial wealth for your family and intergenerational wealth. These figures are extreme. It's been driven by two main factors, and that is rising property prices. We have seen momentum coming back into our housing markets.
We've seen price growth across all of our capital cities over the last five years. But the other aspect is we are staying in our homes for longer periods of time. And what that allows homeowners to do is it gives owners more opportunity to build equity and then realize those capital gains.
But as you said, this is hundreds of thousands of dollars being made on the property when it goes to being resold. And, you know, we're talking about median profits. There's going to be a massive chunk of Australians that have been achieving much higher than this median gain.
Very, very hard to save up $365,000 in six months. That is for sure, let alone the $700,000. As far as the houses are concerned, you guys have reported this is the highest proportion in almost two decades for houses. I mean, that's quite something in itself.
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