With so many houses for sale here in Hervey Bay a recent survey by the Yorkshire Bank may be of interest to someone. The UK bank found that 34% of potential buyers would think twice before buying a home where the neighbouring properties were in a stae of disrepair or had a shabby garden.

Another 22% would be put off buying a home if it had a strange smell.

So perhaps instead of giving your own house a splash of paint and quick garden makeover you should be doing that to your neighbours’ houses.

A little birdy tells me that Hervey Bay is about to see the opening of a new Real Estate Agent’s office. Some of the crew who were originally with Carter Cooper have decided to branch out on their own and their office will be opening very soon.

Good luck guys – with interest rates on hold for another month this might be a good time to join the market.

While there are suggestions that the demand for new houses in Hervey Bay continues to boom the demand for older homes continues to look a little weak.

A drive around town will show that there are plenty of houses on the market but there are not many that are displaying that magic ‘Sold’ sign and those that are appear to be at the lower end of the market. Open house inspections last Saturday seemed to be poorly attended and the initial flurry of interest that seemed to happen at the beginning of September appears to have waned.

Despite falling prices, as shown by this display last weekend, no one really seems interested in buying.

Imported from 1 August 2005

A report in today’s Courier Mail suggests that the residential market in South East Queensland has bottomed and probably won’t recover any time soon. In fact the slump may not be over and new lows could be reached if New South Wales were to remove a tax on vendors.

One Queensland valuer went so far as to suggest that there are almost no first home buyers currently in the marketplace in Brisbane and that demand for houses in the $300,000 to $500,000 has dwindled.

What that means for Hervey Bay is still to be determined although housing prices and demand for housing here always seems to remain strong. The arrival of the jets might even lead to an increase in housing prices and some watchers suggest that we have already seen a slight rise in the cost of rental accommodation.