Townsville property squeeze boosting Great Start Financial

A severe housing and rental shortage in Queensland’s Townsville market has driven strong year-on-year growth in loan values written by the local team at mortgage brokerage Great Start Financial.

Natalie Sleeman (pictured above left), who launched the brokerage eight years ago, said the now two-broker team (herself and Lisa Kefford, pictured above right) were seeing double the value of finance written in the last four months.

For example, Sleeman said the team settled $3 million worth of finance in May 2023, but had more than doubled that in May 2024, when $6.3 million in settled lending went through the business.

“People are trying to move out of the rentals, because the rental cost has gone up, but then the actual sale price has gone up as well,” Sleeman said. “In Townsville, we’re finding that, where the median house price was somewhere around the three hundreds before, now we’re up in the $450,000 to $500,000 range.”

“That’s affecting our business in a positive way, and we’re just trying to help as many people as possible to try and get that security of owning their own home.”

First home buyer rush

Sleeman said the rental market squeeze, which was making it difficult for people to find a rental to live in anywhere in Townsville, was translating into the need for people to either buy or build a home.

Great Start Financial is helping buyers who are ready to get into the market using a guarantor, Queensland’s $30,000 first home owner grant or the First Home Guarantee scheme.

“We’ve got people who may have preferred to wait another 12 months to buy a house, but due to the increasing prices, they’ve gone in sooner and used one of those fast-track methods to do it,” said Sleeman.

Properties that are priced at the $500,000 mark or below are having upwards of 10 or 20 groups through, according to feedback from local real estate agents, and are going for more than market prices.

“People are having to outbid each other; we’re seeing situations where they have to go into a multiple offer scenario quite frequently and that’s not something I’d ever seen personally,” Sleeman said.

Rising property prices are also driving more return business from the brokerage’s existing client base.

“We’re seeing more and more old clients, existing clients, coming to us and trying to utilise their equity to refinance or consolidate debt so they can decrease their overall cost of living.”

“The first home owner grant is attracting first home buyers, and we have a lot of people going out to the land estates and our referral partners are saying, ‘we know a good broker’,” Sleeman said.

The business is planning to focus more on client education in the future. This week for example, Sleeman is presenting to a group of 90 at a local Ladies Finance Club event in Townsville.

“In 2025, our focus will move to more education and trying to put across more on our socials, as a broad view of how people can manage their lending a bit better and what to look for,” she said.

“That’s why this Ladies Finance Club event is really important to us – because it’s all about women gaining their financial independence.

“It’s women trying to build their wealth by purchasing investment property, or single women, single moms, trying to get into their first home, including using some of the government benefits available.

“It’s a great feeling when we can get a family into their home, but nothing beats when you’re able to help a woman find that financial independence where there may have not had the stability before.”