Gunnedah real estate market among best growth areas in nation

Across the city, there has been a four per cent increase in house prices, but given the growing number of sales across consecutive quarters, real estate experts believe the average price ($350,000) is about to jump.

Managing director of hotspotting.com.au, Terry Ryder said the four per cent rise was “pretty solid without booming”, however the market was “starting to pick up”.

“What we know to be true is that when there is an uplift in the number of sales, there is an uplift in prices following – usually with a time lag,” Mr Ryder said.

“It’s a major agricultural centre, and there’s a lot of mining and resource activity that tends to create jobs, and that increases demand for property.”

Ewing Real Estate owner Lauren Robertson said from a residential point of view, Gunnedah was going really well.

“We’ve had lots of people looking for homes – not so much investors, but people who are already live in the town and are either renting or looking to upgrade or downgrade,” Ms Robertson said.

“I was a bit concern about the drought, with the media focus on our area the past couple of weeks and I think that led to inquires dropping a little.

“But this week, we’ve already had three houses under offer, some that had been sitting there for three months, others ones that haven’t really been advertised yet.”

However, she’s not convinced there will be a price jump in the Gunnedah real estate market.

“Buyers are very educated these days and they know what prices are reasonable,” Ms Robertson said.

“They’re not interested in gazumping each other and paying more for a property. Often they’ll just walk away if a vendor is not prepared to meet their expectations.

“I can’t see huge growth in value. The demand is there, but I don’t think we’ll get to the stage where demand is greater than supply.

“The drought cuts out a sector of our market. People related to the agriculture industry are going to keep their money safe.”

Mr Ryder said Gunnedah’s real estate was well placed for the predicted future growth trend.

“One of the strongest jurisdictions is regional NSW,” Mr Ryder said.

“While Sydney is starting to wind down, conversely some regional centres are going up and Gunnedah appears to be one of them.

“This is one of the most significant trends that we’ve notice.

“The regional centres won’t get the boom time that Sydney and other metro areas have seen, they’ve got a nice, consistent, steady growth.”

While the drought doesn’t appear to have had an “adverse effect” on the number of sales, Mr Ryder says “time will tell”.

“The diversity of Gunnedah’s economy, through the agriculture and mining sector, is definitely helping the market weather the drought,” he said.