Property Point

One of the good Australian sayings is that someone or something is “punching above their weight”.
The term is often used to describe an ordinary looking bloke with a good-looking girlfriend or wife … “gee, he’s punching above his weight”.
The phrase, I imagine, comes from the world of boxing, where fighters are restricted to a weight division.
Which brings me to a local bloke by the name of Liam Paro. Born and raised in Mackay, Paro won the world title in his IBF light welterweight division against the Puerto Rican world champion, Subriel Matias, in Peurto Rico on Sunday.
It was an exciting bout all the way to the 12th round, with the boy from Andergrove taking it to his more-favoured opponent right through the fight.
The fight finished with a final round climax that showed off Paro’s skills, determination and absolute elite level of fitness as he clearly asserted himself as the better boxer.
He won the bout with a unanimous decision that means he is now the world champion, Mackay’s World Champ.
Now, I’m not going to say that Liam Paro was punching above his weight because that would suggest that his victory was a surprise, maybe with an element of luck.
That would be untrue and unfair on a world champion who has never been beaten … that’s right, 25 wins from 25 fights. The bloke is a legitimate, well-deserved world champion who is definitely not punching above his weight but, rather, is getting the rewards that hard work and talent can produce.
But he is a kid from Andergrove and now he’s a world champion and deserves the highest recognition from this city for what he has achieved … hopefully that will happen in the weeks and months ahead because he deserves to be celebrated.
No doubt, as his achievement sinks in, attention will turn to Mackay.
It will be interesting because Mackay usually flies under the radar. In real estate this city flew under the radar for years.
But as our economy grew and rental returns started growing a few years ago, some of us in real estate made the observation that southern investors would soon discover the opportunities here.
With the economy powering ahead, rental vacancies tightening and a trickle of southerners looking here for a sea change, local people had real estate to themselves for a while. Southern investors did not seem to know about us.
It started to change last year but this year the flood gates have opened and southern investors have turned their attention to Mackay in a big way.
Investors see great value in Mackay in terms of the relatively low-prices, high rental yields, high average incomes, low crime rates and livability of the region.
I had an open house on Saturday that attracted 35 groups of buyers. Those people were all local or a local person looking on behalf of someone who is moving to Mackay.
However, I had a further 40 or so inquiries from southern investors. We ended up with eight offers on the property, most of which coming from investors.
There will be plenty of people who think this is a bad thing and I understand that because the external competition is creating additional demand that is pushing prices up for local people trying to get into the market.
Unfortunately, in a free market economy, demand and supply decide the price of things and, at the moment, real estate investors think Mackay is under-priced and they are looking to take advantage of the opportunity.
So, whether we like it or hate it, there is a new reality and this is a hot market … Mackay is punching above its weight.

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