There has been some slowing in the property market following the storms, but even that effect appears to be only temporary.
“It has been the Cinderella region and it’s now time for Mackay to go to the ball,” says Bernard Salt, social trends and property analyst with KPMG. “There are two main drivers: the seachange shift and the resources boom, where Mackay, with its port facilities, occupies a pivotal role between the coalfields and the overseas markets. They are both quite long-term factors, so the future looks good.”
The median house price stands at around $380,000, but at Shoal Point on the northern beaches, the median rose 20.9 per cent in 2007 to $549,000.
Direct flights to and from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have boosted tourism- now worth $350 million a year- as well as making it a convenient location for those investing in holiday homes and units.
With the population expected to increase to 100,000 in the next 10-15 years, more than a $1 billion in new residential and lifestyle developments are under way or on the drawing board.
Much of the housing is in the northern beaches area, 10-15km from the town centre, where large architect-designed houses and estates of comfortable family homes are transforming formerly sleepy seaside villages such as Blacks Beach, Eimeo, Bucasia and Shoal Point.
And Mackay has its own millionaires’ row at Dolphin Point, where cliff-top homes with views over the Pacific are on the market for $2.4 million.
The Chamos Group’s luxury development Lanai, overlooking the Pioneer River, saw 75 per cent of its apartments sold off the plan while the remainder have been taken off the market, waiting until a display apartment can be completed around July.