This article appeared in the Australian Broker Online.One of the country’s property investment hotspots has seen rental prices for four bedroom houses increase by a staggering 48% over the past 12 months, it has been claimed.According to a report by Central Queensland University, commissioned by Lyons Residential, the median weekly rental prices for four bedroom houses in Gladstone have increased by 48% over the last 12 months, while median house prices have seen an 8.2% increase.Property investors who have kept even half an eye on the real estate headlines in recent years will already be familiar with the Gladstone boom, but can its stunning recent performance continue? Lyons residential development manager Oliver Kent believes so.

“The market is one of an acute housing and property shortage and this shortage is generating rapidly rising prices in both the sales & rental markets,” he said, pointing to concerns that recent state government support for coal mining in Central Queensland’s Galilee Basin and a 495km railway to Abbot Point near Bowen will create a severe housing shortage in the Gladstone region.

“The 90 bn worth of approved infrastructure projects will place additional pressure on the already tight housing and rental markets,” he said. “We expect to see solid rental and sales price increase over a much longer period of some seven years or more”If you are in the market for finance to purchase an investment property, then contact    John Whitten on 0749722081 or 0410433919. You can also email him at jwhitten@ihl.net.au or look him up on the net www.ihl.net.au. John Whitten is a credit representative (CRN 399796) of BLASSA Pty Ltd (Australian Credit Licence No 391237).