Property conference puts spotlight on Airlie

ABOUT 200 property valuers were in the Whitsundays last week for the Australian Property Institute’s (API) North Queensland Property Conference at Coral Sea Resort.

API member Jordan Miller, who was also on the conference’s organising committee, said this was the first time it had been held in Airlie Beach.

“This year, we were trying to do something a little bit different and trying to attract people from a wider audience – not just North Queensland,” he explained.

Mr Miller said initial indications showed this aim had been achieved with property valuers travelling from as far afield as the Gold Coast, Sydney and even China, to attend the event.

Speakers at the conference included Steve Marks from Ray White Whitsunday, Michael Hanisch from PRDnationwide Whitsunday and Danial Rochford from Whitsundays Marketing and Development Limited (WMDL).

Mr Hanisch spoke about the results from his recently developed Geographic Information System (GIS) which maps out the available unavailable and existing development land in and around the township of Airlie Beach. He said his main messages were that land was selling extremely well and that the Whitsundays was a good place to invest, “because the values can only go up”.

“It’s one of the most under-valued places going at the moment, just purely based on the fact that there’s not a huge amount of stock,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Marks talked about tourism and its impact on property values.

He said the Whitsunday property market was definitely improving and through the conference, it was great to be able to highlight that on a national level.

Mr Rochford described the conference as a great opportunity for Whitsunday representatives to speak directly to the key property valuers in North Queensland and to let them know “that positive opportunities lie ahead”.